British

Kittyhawk 1/32 P-39 Bell Airacobra Mk1

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Year Purchased: 2016
Date Completed: 2017
​Aftermarket used
Eduard  Cockpit interior set, and exterior set ,exhausts
HGW Seatbelts RAF eraly style Sutton Harness
Mastercaster early style wheels and fishtail exhausts for Mk1
Master Model  .50in and .303 gun barrels with no flash hider
Maketar Masks  RAF and RAAF airacobra for Special Hobby kit

I have always loved the Airacobra in Royal Air Force markings, so when Kittyhawk announced their kit, thoughts turned to modifying it to represent a Mk 1 Airacobra as briefly used by 601 SQN
Research revealed there weren’t too many visible differences between the kit version and the one I wanted to model.  Fishtail exhausts, wheels, armament and a smaller diameter propeller being the main ones.  Mastercaster did wheels and exhausts for a Mk1.  Although made to fit the Special Hobby kit, they were easily adaptable to the KH kit.  Master of Poland supplied the gun barrels for wings and fuselage, the nose cannon being made from brass tubing.  I had planned to have the nose gun bay open, and had even gone as far as to replace the kit 37mm cannon with a 20mm hispano robbed from a HobbyBoss Spitfire, but in the end was not happy that I had portrayed the interior correctly, so reluctantly glued the panels shut.  The aerial mast was scratchbuilt from plastic strip, and the pitot tube came from a Trumpeter P-47
Overall I found the kit a reasonable build, although there were a couple of areas where fit was less than stellar, the wingroots being the main culprit.  This was due to the recess for the inner walls of the wheelbays not being deep enough.  The problem was solved by fitting the wings to the fuselage minus the wheelwell inner walls.  These were fitted after the wings were glued on.  To enable this, you need to cut the tabs off the wheelwell front and rear walls that the inner walls locate onto.  Do this and you will be rewarded with a join that just needs a smear of filler to hide.  It remains one of my favourite builds.

Bell P-39 Airacobra Mk1 601 SQN. Royal Air Force. Duxford 1941

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Special Hobby 1/32 Brewster Buffalo Mk1

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  • Built: 2016
  • Aftermarket Used: Nil
  • Decals: Montex masks

This one had a period on The Shelf of Doom due to me damaging the windscreen.  Special Hobby kindly came to the rescue and supplied me a new one free of charge.  Exceedingly generous of them seeing as I was the one who cocked it up.  I added a few additions to the cockpit such as a British reflector gunsight and armoured glass screen to reflect the British modifications. All markings are sprayed using Montex masks.  I have since discovered a few colour inaccuracies, the fuselage band should be sky blue and there should be no yellow ring on the underside roundel.  I still like it though.  Its actually a kit that I would like to revisit as I do i have a soft spot for the tubby Buffalo.  This being the third one I have built, well fourth, as I remember building the old tamiya kit as well. 

Brewster Buffalo Mk 1 67 SQN. R.A.F Burma 1941

AMT 1/48 Douglas A-20 Boston IIIA

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  • Built; 2014
  • Aftermarket Used: True Details wheels, Master Barrel gun barrels Vector control surfaces
  • Decals: Various spare decals with nose art being hand painted.

Another two builds of the same kit in parallel.  AMTs kit is getting rather old now and we really need a new one.  Detail is soft, although there are now sets available for it from Vector, and it has several inaccuracies including metal control surfaces where they should be fabric and I believe the main landing gear is to far backward, or forward, cant remember which.  That said, it is a pretty viceless build.  The only weak point being the undercarriage attachment.  It is incredibly flimsy.  Mine have sheared off twice!!.  The doors also have poor attachment points.
I cut out all the control surfaces and replaced them with the Vector resin replacements,
I built the RAF one for a group build on an on-line forum.  It was the first time I had used the salt chipping method, and I was quite pleased with the results.  I wanted an machine that reflected the haste with which some units applied their invasion stripes., so the stripes were hand painted using vallejo paints.

As there are no decals for this scheme in 48 scale I used various generic sheets for the codes and national markings and hand painted the nose art.  She was flown by an Australian crew.  Im really hoping a new tool kit of this important aircraft is released soon.  The A.M.T kit has served well, but is long overdue for replacement.

 Xtracolour enamels were again used

Douglas Boston Mk IIIA Royal Air Force. England. 1944

Airfix 1/48 Hawker Hunter F6

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  • Built: 2019
  • Aftermarket Used: Eduard P.E Flap set . Eduard dedicated cockpit set
  • Decals: Xtradecal

Ive previously mentioned I’m loving Airfix’s new releases. The Hunter was a monty for them to put out in 48 scale, but I feel they have rushed this kit a little. It is decidedly lacking the detail of some of their other releases such as the Walrus and Blenheim. Lacking in both cockpit and surface detail, the flap bays are also strangely devoid of detail despite Airfix offering them as separate parts, so the lack of moulded ribs and stringers is mystifying can be displayed down. Airfix have also missed a door actuator off the front nose wheel leg, as only one is provided.

The model builds quickly and easily. I cant remember too many issues. ( for some reason, I failed to write this up after completing the kit, so this is being written up about two years after building the kit) The blue tac I used to hold the canopies to an old paintbrush handle whilst spraying them left a stain that could not be removed, even using Mr Thinner, which normally removes everything else. A reaction to the blu tac is the only thing that comes to mind that would have caused the stain as it would not polish out or wipe off using the afore mentioned Mr Thinner. This forced me to cut apart the closed canopy as the model would be displayed with open canopy.

The hunter had many interesting schemes, airfix though provide options for three simply camouflaged machines, albeit, from two different Air Forces. A more interesting scheme was found on an Xtradecals sheet which had been in the decal bank for some years, looking for an excuse to be used.

Gunze Shine Red stood in for a very passable R.A.F. Signal Red. Gunze was also used for the Light Aircraft Grey with M.R.P Light Arctic Grey which is an off white being used for the white. It looks white out of the bottle, but when compared to the white of the roundels one can definitely see its a very pleasant grey. Its defiantly a masking intensive scheme, but certainly is eye catching.

And thats the Airfix Hunter, a decent, but not outstanding kit. I am perplexed though why Airfix has not followed it up with the F.G.A.9

Hawker Hunter F6