Australian

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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RedRoo Models 1/48 Sikorsky S-51

/ Bruces Scale Models / 2 Comments
  • Purchased ; 2023
  • Completed; 2024
  • Enhancements; None, built completely OOB
  • Decals; Kit

Introduction

Another kit that was an impulse purchase, the reasons behind which are lost to the sands of time (despite being only last year!). A vague memory is it was possibly linked to a purchase of the AMP Sycamore around the same time, and the reason behind the Sycamore purchase? Another impulse after watching a YouTube show on it! Anyway, I digress.

This particular boxing is the A.M.P product, reboxed by Red Roo Models with new resin parts so the builder can build an example of a machine in Australian service from a variety of SQNS that used them.

The resin parts consist of a new 2 bladed tail rotor which the later RAAF machines used and wooden rotor blades as used by the earlier ones and the two USN examples that were embarked on the Sydney during the Korean War. The plastic, is as usual from some of these limited run Ukrainian companies, light grey with soft detail on the smaller parts. Clear parts are acceptable , although certainly not the clearest I have seen. The nose halves are moulded in clear plastic .

All parts will require extensive clean up to remove heavy mould seams. Redroo also include lengths of brass wire of varying diameter to build extra details and a printed rear seat on acetate to represent the web type rear seat. A very comprehensive set of instructions is included detailing exactly what needs to be added to the kit, even so , they have not done the best job of redrawing the AMP instructions, missing out a few things. For instance , there should a small instrument cluster mounted on the rear wall behind the pilots seat. The parts are included on the fret if some, but not called out in the instructions. Some of the suggested techniques are quite quaint and reminescent of Airfix Magazine back in the 70s . Pin heads to represent landing light lenses !!

Construction Notes

The interior builds up reasonably well, once the heavy mould seams are removed. PE seat belts are provided as are sides to the instrument console. The collective is overscale and will need replacing from small diameter wire or rod to give a better scale appearance. All locating holes will need to be enlarged to accept the opposite parts. Nothing too hard, just tedious. I used the rear seat on mine although I was worried about the glossy reflection off the acetate. You needn’t worry about this though as it really can’t be seen once the fuselage is closed up. To bend the acetate, lines were scored on the reverse side with a scalpel

Don’t forget to add some weight underneath the floor so the completed model sits on its tricycle gear. As there were no masks in my kit, tape was placed over the windows, burnished into the corners with a toothpick and then cut with a new blade. The windows all have prominent seals around their circumference, so this is quite easy to do. The inside and outside were masked and the interior halves of the nose painted Interior Green. with the lower half of the rear cabin walls and also the rear bulkhead painted a dark green rot represent the quilting. Brown vertical lines were then drawn on with a pencil to represent the stitching. Seat cushions were painted the same dark green.

The overhead window outlines are very faint so, the PE frames were added to each fuselage half and then these were used as guides to cut the masks. The interior of these windows were painted Tamiya Clear Green.

The only other complex assembly is the rotor head, again careful clean up and patience are your friends here. The PE parts adding to the delicacy of the completed assembly. I probably should have spent a bit more time cleaning up seams on my rotorhead though. I had no faith in the rotor blades remaining attached securely the way the instructions would have you build the kit, so each blade root and blade clutch was drilled and pinned with fine wire. The “knuckles” on each of these parts were also thinned with a microfile to enable the blades to fit onto the arms. Have I mentioned every part of this kit needed careful clean up or thinning or drilling out.

The join of the clear parts to the grey parts needed a bit of filling and I managed to sand a bit of a flat spot in, which I tried to smooth out with filler. The transparent nose is also not the best fit, and this gap was hidden by the simple expedient of a thin strip of tape covering it.

Finishing

The plastic , having a bit of texture took a bit of effort to get polished smooth for the primer coat . I had made the mistake of constructing all the details called out by Red Roo, such as the winch guard and steps out of thin wire and adding them prior to painting. The result of this was areas around these parts were hard to access for polishing, resulting in gritty paint around these areas. Silver was Tamiya’s superlative LP11. Simply the best paint out there for simulating silver painted finished , in my opinion anyway!

The red and yellow striped tail skid was first painted yellow then masked with strips of tape cut on my infini cutting mat. If you haven’t got one of these…..you need one!. Ensuring you leave a piece of uncut tape at one end allows you to use this as a handle to position the tape. It is just then a matter of removing every alternate strip of tape before painting the red.

Decals, although needing to be neatly cut out as the carrier film is continuous across the whole sheet performed brilliantly. The roundel was sourced from an Xtradecals sheet .

A coat of gloss to seal them in and then a wash using Tamiya Panel Line Accent. Dark grey completed the finishing process. A black marker was used to outline all the windows to represent the rubber seals.

Final assembly

The winch was assembled after cleaning it up. The whole winch should really be re built using plastic or brass rod as this would produce a much nicer item, mine has only the top rail replaced as this broke during the clean up. Now is also a good time to add the aerials, on mine, these were added earlier, thereby inflicting several puncture wounds to my thumb when handling the model.. Finally the rotors can be glued on. A.M.P have moulded a square peg on the bottom that fits into a square hole, meaning the rotorhead pretty much needs to be glued in. Id suggest replacing this with either thick plastic rod or brass wire so that the rotor can be removed at will for transport etc.

Conclusion

So that’s it. Naturally there’s things I could and should have done better, but it’s a lovely little model you don’t see built too often, . It looks great in the display case amongst all the other drab military aircraft. I wouldn’t mind having a go at a USN example one day either. An interesting postscript to my chosen subject is its last flight was aiding in flood rescue duties during The Hunter Valley floods in 1962 close to where I now live.

These are a limited run boxing from RedRoo, and Id say, once they are gone they are gone. So get one now from the Redroo website if you need a RAAF S-51 -The RAAF never referred to them as Dragonfly – in your collection

Sikorsky S-51 No. 81 Wing. RAAF Williamtown Australia 1958

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HpH 1/32 Supermarine Walrus

/ Bruces Scale Models / 5 Comments
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  • Purchased: 2013
  • Completed: 2024
  • Enhancements: Completely out of box
  • Decals: Custom cut masks

Introduction

When this kit was first announced by HpH, I was immediately on board as the Walrus is a favourite of mine. The only kits in my preferred scale of 48 were the awful SMER and slightly less awful Classic Airframes kits, the superb Airfix kit still being 3 years away. A 32 scale Walrus sounded very epic. It was also very expensive!

I was somewhat dismayed upon arrival of the kit to see the small resin parts had been cast attached to a sheet of resin. Separating the parts was going to require quite a bit of sanding!

Aside from that, the main airframe parts looked to have been cast very cleanly and with excellent detail, the fuselage being fully riveted and the flying surfaces being cast in solid pieces with rib detail that mimicked the sturdy construction of the real thing. The bow section had been marred by the rough removal of the casting block at the factory leaving a ragged gap when both fuselage halves were dry fitted together. Instructions were on a CD which I printed out, so as to make them more accessible on the bench. It is handy though to keep the CD handy as you can zoom in on the parts to help identification. Whilst the parts are numbered in the instructions, the actual parts aren’t. Numbers on casting blocks would have helped greatly in assembly. This would have to be one of the most complete kits on the market, with decals , photo etch, masks and even HGW fabric seatbelts all included in the box.

Construction

The first order of business was to straighten the two fuselage halves. Although I had taped them together many years ago to preserve their shape, they had still developed a few warps. These were straightened by the simple expedient of dunking the fuselage halves into boiling water until they naturally returned to their original state.

Construction was able to be commenced straight away, thanks to me having removed most of the resin parts from their backing a few years ago during downtime at work

Much sanding was involved, the parts either being hand held or taped to a small piece of aluminium angle whilst sanded against a sheet of wet and dry taped to a flat surface. My recollection at the time was a few parts got damaged but looking at my work now, far less than I remembered. Yay for me!

The interior is VERY complete, with a full cockpit, radio operators and navigators station included. The only thing missing was the run of control lines along the fuselage, which of course could be added by the modeller. The bell cranks leading off the control column and rudder bar are provided though, ready for you to connect the lines to.

Id suggest adding the side windows first whilst you still have good access . If the resin flash from the window openings is carefully removed, the resin windows should be a push fit once the window opening corners are squared off

To keep the build momentum going an early decision was made to only build the visible items. So into the spares box went the radios, the operators seat, and a few other bits and bobs that would never be seen. The roof trellis was replaced by a piece of plastic card that formed a tab to help align both fuselage halves.

There are side windows which you can see flashes of the navigator’s table through, but that’s about it.  Given this, adding the radio sets, and all the other mid fuselage fittings seemed pointless as they would be invisible on the finished model.

So, only the parts around the gunners openings were added, such as spare drum magazines, ribs and floor sections.

Constant dry fits of the fuselage halves ensure they would mate without any of the ribs fouling.  There was a bit of filing required, and snipping of various ribs needed throughout this process.  All in all, though, everything went fairly well, with the various components locating nicely, apart from the floor which required new slots cut for the ribs to fit into. Tedious but easily achieved by holding the floor up to the ribs, the new positions for slots marked and then cut in.

To help matters, ensure you add the side windows early before any of the other parts and that you glue all the bulkheads to the same side.  I didn’t do either of these things and it complicated assembly a little bit. Ensure you get the snuggest fit you can with the main bulkhead against the interior wall.  Mine also needed sanding a fair bit to reduce its width.

Once this was in place, 2mm holes were drilled through the depressions HpH had thoughtfully added.  K&S stainless steel rod was used. Lines were marked out on the wings to ensure the holes were drilled perpendicular to the fuselage. With as much of the interior as I wanted installed and painted , the fuselage halves were now joined. It was not the best join, with several steps in the keel and one behind the canopy. These were fixed by cracking the join and reglueing the area, one area at a time.  This worked quite well with all of the steps being eradicated.

The entire seam required filling with super glue and repeated rounds of sanding and priming to remove all trace of the seam.  The main area being the top of the fuselage between the rear gunners area and the cockpit. The area immediately behind the cockpit required its raised detail reinstating with plastic strip as my judicious sanding had eliminated it. The aforementioned tab of thick plastic card under the roof join ensuring that seam didn’t crack open with all the required sanding.

A spot primer coat of Mr Surfacer was then applied and the rivets reinstated with a Rosie Riveter riveting tool.

Although the holes for the wing spar were drilled where HPH indicated. Looking at the model in plan view revealed the wire was not exactly at 90 degrees to the fuselage centre line. Redrilling it would have caused a loss of the structural integrity I was hoping for, so it was left as is, my thinking being the matching hole in the wing could be drilled at an angle to compensate.

Next on the list was the fitting of the engine nacelle.  HpH providing a helpful jig to aid in its alignment

HpH provide dimples for where the strut location holes need to be drilled, however no advice as to what angles the holes should be drilled at. It is left up to the modeller to determine by studying  the walkaround photos included in the instructions.

To me, this is one of the areas where HpH could really improve the modellers experience in building their kits.  Yes, I know HpH  market to the advanced modeller, but  this does not absolve HpH from providing detailed instructions to assist in making their kits an enjoyable build.  This is a key part of the build. The nacelle provides the base to which the top wing centre section is attached.  Getting the struts at the correct angle here is imperative to getting the geometry of the aeroplane correct.  Given you are joining a centre section which needs to be square to an offset nacelle, strut placement and angle is critical.  No assistance in the form of diagrams, pre drilled holes is offered by HpH though, the photos in the instructions being less than helpful.

Its these kinds of things that don’t make building the kit as enjoyable experience as say for example, a Fisher Models kit.  Anyway, the nacelle was fitted. 4 of the 8 struts needed fairing in to the nacelle with Milliput as they were a little short.  I was concerned my nacelle was not forward enough, a point that was reinforced later when fitting the propeller as it fouled the wing trailing edge. Oh well!

The next step was to fit the rather large tail unit.  The tail fin is a separate part and when test fitted, had quite a large step on one side requiring building up the side of the fin with milliput.  Rivets and panel lines were then reinstated .  On top of the vertical fin sits the tailplane.  In the kit they come as right and left halves, one of mine had a casting flaw that left a mark which would have been incredibly hard to sand away without destroying the rib detail.  All the tailplane parts need to be pinned to each other to ensure maximum strength.  There was no real difficulty in this stage, just ensure everything is square.  Mine looked square, that is until I got the wings on!

There are two bracing struts each side.  Dimples for drilling are there on the fuselage, but not the stabilisers.  Consequentially, my struts were fitted to the tailplane  one rib too close Of course they had been soundly glued and faired in before this was realised.  I didn’t pick this up until comparing the model yo photographs of the actual aircraft.So they were painstakingly unglued, holes redrilled and the struts relocated one rib further out.  I was starting to not enjoy the Walrus.

Wings were added next, again not as neat a fit as the dry fits suggested.  This was purely down to my imprecise drilling, rather than the kit, as dry fits had shown a step and gap free join several times.  The upper wing is quite a heavy sizeable assembly when the outer wings are glued to the centre section. 2 part epoxy was chosen for its added strength.  Adding the upper wings to the struts took several goes to ensure everything was straight.  My top wing has got a slight twist in it due to the top nacelle struts being out of line, thus causing the wing centre section to not be square to the longitudinal axis.

Rather than continue with a blow by blow account detailing all my errors, below is my suggested assembly sequence for anyone else attempting this model.

  1. Ensure all contents of kit match the photo of kit parts
  2. Drill holes for spars in wings and fuselage. Test fit often.  Ensure all holes line up and are perpendicular to fuselage centre line. Do not add upper wings to centre section yet.
  3. Add the main bulkhead which will have the wire spar pass through it and drill this.
  4. Assemble fuselage adding as much of the interior as you desire, bearing in mind much of it will be invisible.  Ensure canopy will fit.
  5. Pass wire spars through before closing fuselage.  It’s a lot easier than afterwards!
  6. Build and add tail unit ensuring everything is square.
  7. Build up engine nacelle as complete unit with lower struts, ensuring by repeated dry fit it will be able to be added later.  Use supplied jig to ensure it will be sitting in correct place with struts angled accordingly. Drill holes for the nacelle rigging.
  8. Ensure lower wings are a good fit.  Do not attach them yet.
  9. Use the lower wings as a jig to assemble the outer floats but do not attach them at this time.  Drill all holes for rigging.
  10. Add the upper nacelle struts to the upper wing centre section, ensuring all your struts are at the correct angle to ensure the centre section remains square to the fuselage centre line.  This is vital in ensuring your model will have correct geometry.  It will also take lots of trial and error , remember that nacelle is offset, but the centre section needs to remain square.  The instructions don’t really illustrate the position of the struts at all well, You want the angled bits of wire plugging into the upper wing.  Glue the struts to the nacelle, but not the centre section at this stage
  11. Disassemble the model into subassemblies of fuselage, nacelle and centre section
  12. Add canopy.  You will be annoyed to find the supplied masks are all undersized!
  13. You can now paint the fuselage and nacelle and wings and I would go as far as even  decaling.
  14. Glue nacelle to fuselage and add rigging.
  15. Add floats to wings, rig the floats then add wings to fuselage.
  16. Add outer wings to centre section, glue struts in place and into wings.
  17. The tailwheel/sea rudder should be added last to save breakage, mine must have snapped about 3 times despite having a steel wire core.

Ah, the benefits of hindsight.  I’m sure my build would have gone a lot easier if it had been tackled this way.

By the stage of adding the upper wings I was completely over the model, in fact a couple of times I simply just did not want to  sit at the bench.

The decision was made to finish the kit to the bare minimum standard. My initial vision was a battered weatherbeaten aircraft, but at this stage, simply did not have the strength to invest any more time than was needed to get a basic paintjob on the model.  For the above reason my model’s weathering is limited to some chipping along the hull using the hairspray technique.  It was left at that.  The weathering may get revisited at some stage, but probably not.

Paints used were MRP for the top surfaces and white Ensign enamel for the underside Sky Blue.  Enamels are not my paint of choice these days, but this sprayed beautifully, but boy did it pong!  

Anyone that says lacquers smell worse than enamels are kidding themselves.  HpH threw in one last annoyance with their provided canopy masks all being undersized, necessitating new masks being cut from Tamiya tape.  I was by now thoroughly over this model and just wanted it off the bench.

Masks for the markings were cut after scanning the decal sheet for the Airfix 1/48 scale kit.

Rigging was fishing line.  Holes were drilled right through the upper wing so that the line could be pulled taut, the holes then being filled.  It would have been better to drill right through the bottom wing, but this is the kind of model you simply just don’t turn upside down if you can avoid it.  It weighs a ton, turning it upside down would be just inviting disaster.

With the rigging done, all that awaited was the wheels being added.  This was accomplished without incident, and with that, the Walrus was done.

Conclusion

I have very mixed feelings about the finished model.  It is nowhere near my best work. In the haste to get it off the bench, several compromises were made, especially in regard to the finish.  Parts such as bomb racks and the machine guns were left off, although photos do show this machine with no gun armament.  Despite this, the finished model is a beast, it captures the nature of the Walrus like no other scale can, and looks very impressive in the cabinet.  I love it.  HpH have made an excellent kit, although some details like landing light and wingtip lights are missing.  The model certainly is not fun to build.

Strangely it has not lessened my desire to build the 2 other HpH kits in my stash, these being the Hornet and the Helldiver. What it was responsible for though, was me deciding to sell just about all of my bigger 32 scale kits. hese big, complex builds in my stash, so onto the For Sale pile they went, and I feel a lot better for it. Most of them have already been replaced with the same subjects in 48 scale. My cabinet thanks me.

Now for a lie-down and a Tamiya kit!

Supermarine Walrus MkI 5 Communications Flight. Royal Australian Air Force. New Guinea 1943

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Hong Kong Models 1/48 B-25J Mitchell

/ Bruces Scale Models / 1 Comment
  • Purchased: 2023
  • Built:2023
  • Enhancements:
  • Gun Barrels: Karaya & Master Models
  • Cockpit :Eduard Space 3D
  • Wheels: Eduard Brassin
  • Ammo feed chutes: Eduard
  • Decals: ArtScale RAAF Mitchells Part 2

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.

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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.

N.A.A B=25J Mitchell. 2 SQN R.A.A.F Hughes Airstrip. Northern Territory Australia 1944.

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Kinetic 1/48 Dassault Mirage IIIO

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  • Built: 2017
  • Aftermarket Used: Wheels-Resin art. Pitot Tube-Master detail
  • Decals: Caracal Mirages over Australia

The Mirage holds a favourite place in the hearts of many Australian Aircraft modellers, so there was much rejoicing when Kinetic announced they were releasing this kit.  Although in my opinion,  it renders the Heller and Italeri kits obsolete, moulding is a little soft and the fit is not the best. 
There is still room for the definitive kit out there. 
Two of my friends and I decided to build this kit as a challenge build to get judged at a show.  the winner gets to pick the next subject.  At least I finished this one, the last build – the Kittyhawk Jaguar- is still languishing in its box with broken u/c.  In a fit of insanity, I decided to build all three kinetic mirages in my stash.  two single seaters and a trainer, the trainer still needing to be finished as I’m a little “miraged out” at the moment.  The kit goes together quickly enough, but there are several traps  awaiting the unwary, and the moulding is quite poor for a kit released in 2015, mine having many sink marks and a lot of flash. OOB, the nose gear also has a little bit of an exaggerated backward rake.
With the two Caracal sheets, you can pretty much make any mirage in the RAAF fleet, wearing any of the many schemes it wore during its service life
 I found though, the caracal tail bands needed trimming for a better fit, and the blue in the roundels and fin flash is too vivid. 
Ronin Graphics also do a couple of very comprehensive sheets, that also allow you to build a few of the commemorative schemes.
In fact there  is a fair bit of AM around for this kit
And the winner of the challenge build?  Well, all three of us never managed to get to the show!

Dassault Mirage IIIO 77 SQN R.A.A.F Williamtown. Australia 1986

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Kinetic 1/48 C.A.C Mirage IIIO

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  • Date Completed;  December 2017
  • Aftermarket Used: Eduard interior set, Seat-Pavla MB4, Pitot tube- master barrel. Stores-PJ productions PM3 bomb rack, Hasegawa bombs, Wheels-Resin art
  • Decals: Caracal Mirages over Australia

The Mirage holds a favourite place in the hearts of many Australian Aircraft modellers, so there was much rejoicing when Kinetic announced they were releasing this kit.  Although in my opinion,  it renders the Heller and Italeri kits obsolete, moulding is a little soft and the fit is not the best. 
There is still room for the definitive kit out there. 
Two of my friends and I decided to build this kit as a challenge build to get judged at a show.  the winner gets to pick the next subject.  At least I finished this one, the last build – the Kittyhawk Jaguar- is still languishing in its box with broken u/c.  In a fit of insanity, I decided to build all three kinetic mirages in my stash.  two single seaters and a trainer, the trainer still needing to be finished as I’m a little “miraged out” at the moment.  The kit goes together quickly enough, but there are several traps  awaiting the unwary, and the moulding is quite poor for a kit released in 2015, mine having many sink marks and a lot of flash. OOB, the nose gear also has a little bit of an exaggerated backward rake.
With the two Caracal sheets, you can pretty much make any mirage in the RAAF fleet, wearing any of the many schemes it wore during its service life
 I found though, the caracal tail bands needed trimming for a better fit, and the blue in the roundels and fin flash is too vivid. 
Ronin Graphics also do a couple of very comprehensive sheets, that also allow you to build a few of the commemorative schemes.
In fact there  is a fair bit of AM around for this kit
And the winner of the challenge build?  Well, all three of us never managed to get to the show!

C.A.C Mirage IIIO(A) 3 SQN. Butterworth. Malaya. R.A.A F

Hasegawa 1/48 P-40E Kittyhawk

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  • Built:   2016
  •   Ultracast P-40 seat
  •   Ultracast P-40 Block tread wheels
  •   Ultracast P-40 Tubular exhausts

Decals:            Combination of Cutting Edge Pyn Up and Aussie decals

​Hasegawa’s P-40 series seems to be one of those kits modellers either love or hate 
 Flick through any of the fora and you will find modellers that rate it as a horrible fitting kit through to other modellers that have had no fit problems at all.  It does require care in assembly – like any kit – but I found mine went together reasonably well with only a small amount of iller needed around the gun ports and fuselage.  To be honest, I found the Cutting Edge decals a real disappointment, thick and reluctant to conform to recessed details.  The nose art decals, although very thin, were not sharply printed.  I dare say though printing technology has improved since these decals were first released.

Curtiss P-40 E-CE Kittyhawk

A.M.T 1/48 Douglas A-20C

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  • Built: 2014
  • Aftermarket Used: Master barrel brass gun barrels, RedRoo Models tropical cowls, Vector corrected control surfaces, MDC main wheels.
  • Decals: RedRoo Models

The second of a parallel Boston build, This one was finished as a RAAF machine. All the comments from my first Boston Build apply here too, including the spindly landing gear.

Douglas A-20C 22 SQN Royal Australian Air Force .

Goodenough Island New Guinea 1942

Tamiya 1/32 Supermarine Spitfire MkVIII

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Date Completed:2015
Aftermarket:  barracuda Starboard cockpit sidewall. Barracuda Spitfire Block tread Wheels
Decals: Victory Productions Commonwealth Spitfire Aces

This Tamiya kit lived up to all the hype about it, which is just what I needed after coming out the other end of a mojo drought.  I didn’t bother with the engine, knowing it would slow the build down.  Rather than opting for the kit shark mouth scheme, I went for something different choosing Group Captain Clive Caldwell’s machine.  Codes and unit markings were from Victory Productions Spitfire Aces sheet, whilst all national markings were painted. A real joy from start to finish.
In retrospect though, I lightened the dark earth a little too much, so it doesn’t quite capture the darker looking camouflage of our spitfires. 

Spitfire MkVIII 80 Wing Royal Australian Air Force. Moritai. 1944

Special Hobby 1/48 Brewster Model 339 Buffalo

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  • Built: 2014
  • Aftermarket Used: Nil. OOB
  • Decals: Kit

The second part of my double Buffalo build. Like the other build, this one also went together quite effortlessly.

To paint it I used the then popular “black base” technique. I remember not liking it that much as I didn’t think it gave you a lot of range with the colours. The colours on this were all lightened considerably to portray a faded machine that had been operating under a blazing hot Northern Territory sun.

Extracolour paints were again used from my now diminishing supply.

I think this one turned out better than the U.S one I completed just prior.

Brewster Buffalo. 1 P.R.U SQN Royal Australian Air Force. Hughes Air Base.N.T 1942