WW2

Hasegawa 1/48 B6N2 Tenzan

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  • Purchased; 2023
  • Completed: 2025
  • Enhancements: OOB
  • Decals: Myk-Design

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

Construction Notes

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

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

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

Painting and Decalling

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

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

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

Final Assembly

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

Trumpeter 1/48 Vickers Wellington Ic

/ Bruces Scale Models / 4 Comments
  • Purchased; 2016
  • Completed; 2025
  • Enhancements;
  • Gun barrels. Master Details
  • Flaps- Brengun
  • Fuel Dump Pipes – Quickboost
  • Decals: Xtradecals

I remember being quite excited at the news that Trumpeter was releasing this, as it filled a major gap in 1/48 RAF WW2 subjects. Its not a kit that has graced many competition tables or on line sites though, so that to me tends to indicate not many are getting built, perhaps as its a sizeable model once done.

Accuracy wise, it suffers from a too narrow undercarriage and very overstated surface textures.The undercarriage I could live with, the surface detail though had to be reduced. There is a reasonably complete interior, albeit somewhat simplified, that pretty much gets hidden away once the fuselage is closed up. Fit for the most part is good, but the kit shows its age as one of Trumpeter’s earlier releases with the parts not as sharply moulded as some of their later releases, and also exhibiting fine mould seams along mating edges. Perhaps the biggest plus of the kit are the THREE sprues of early RAF type bombs Trumpeter includes to load the bomb bay with various types of bombs. Transparencies are lovely and clear, but the decal sheet, as per usual with Trumpeter RAF subjects has markings with colours that are far too bright.

Construction

Even before construction started, several thick coats of SMS surfacer grey to the wing and horizontal stabiliser parts. Once dry, it was rubbed back until the kit surface detail showed as bare plastic . After being repeated a few times, the Trumpeter geodetic pattern had become somewhat subdued. This probably could have been taken further as it shows as quite subtle in photos, but I chose to leave it as was.

The colour call outs in the instructions were disregarded as mine would be an early war bomber and research on Britmodeller had uncovered more correct colours.

So on my kit, cockpit is RAF grey green as is the bomb aimers position. Mid fuselage is a brick red colour with silver framing. Floors are black. Bomb bay interior and insides of doors are silver.

Turret interiors are also silver. Black turret interiors seem to have come later after the RAF doctrine had changed to night bombing.

I would recommend that the turrets complete with guns are built as a whole rather than doing what I did, and leaving the guns out to be added later. This resulted in me having difficulty aligning them. The kit barrels were replaced with brass items at final assembly.

Aside from the ventral turret and rear ammunition runs, the complete interior was assembled , although not a lot of effort was expended in painting it as very little can be seen. Don’t forget to paint the underside of the front turret as this can be seen through the bomb aimers window. Trumpeter have not included a bomb sight, so one will have to be scratch built should you desire.

The engines assembled fine, just ensure you double check the instructions to ensure the parts are correctly orientated. Don’t bother with after market engines as you can see very little of the completed engines.

Why Trumpeter made the wheel well interiors from PE, is a bit of a mystery to me, but they must have been made by Bluescope Steel! Have fun removing them from the frets! I also took the precaution of drilling all the holes out so that the landing gear assembled easily. Apparently the wheels and therefore struts are too narrow., not something that bothered until me until found out, then it did!

Back in the day when this kit was first released CMK did resin wheel wells for it, but these have long since disappeared from shops (as has most AM for the kit). The kit rubber tyres needed to be dunked in boiling water to soften them enough to conform to the rims. Although I did have Brengun resin wheels, they were even narrower than the kit wheels so were not used.

The only major construction issue faced by me was, when locating the bomb aimers window, it was found to be wider than the fuselage cutout. This must have been me as the rest of the transparencies fitted like a glove. In the end a piece of clear CD cover and a shim were used to bring out the fuselage to match the bomb aimers window.

If you are reluctant to test fit the wings fearing, like the Tamiya Mosquito, they will never be able to be removed again, don’t be. The wings are a very sloppy fit, and hardly a friction fit to the support boxes, so can be slid on and off with carefree abandon. To attach these, you are best off using epoxy glue , ensuring the wings are level to get a nice solid fit. There were no gaps on my kit . The PE ?cable cutters were left off my kit as I could not find any photos of machines with them fitted. My references were the 4+ book and images from IWM website.

The Brengun flap interiors fitted nicely into the kit flap wells, once the required material had been removed. I do wish these companies though would engineer the flaps to fit far more solidly. Small glue contacts areas such as PE hinges just don’t cut it.

Painting and Decaling

From the start, my Wellington was going to portray an early war bomber to pay homage to these early Bomber Command crews that starting taking the war to Germany just a few days after the Declaration of War. An early war scheme of overall DE/DG almost won out, but the toned down roundels on the Xtradecal sheet really appealed to me, bringing home these early attempts at toned -down markings, plus it had an early fin flash, replacement rudder and those lovely large codes. What’s not to like there?

SMS Camo black is my favourite black these days, having a warmish brown tone to it. Over this was sprayed various shades of greys and other blacks such as NATO and Rubber Black. This was done through two different splatter type masks. Not forgetting to also do the flaps and bomb bay doors at the same time

For the top sides, LF camouflage masks were used with the Dark Earth being SMS, and the Dark Green GSI Gunze.. Darker and lighter shades of these colours were used to break them up. Oil paints were used to depict oil leaks and staining trailing back from the nacelles across the wings. AK Starbay sludge was used for this. A shade which in retrospect is far too browny -grey . I should have used black or Sepia

The Xtradecal decals performed well. As they are printed by Microscale, they really only needed the mild micro products to settle into any detail. As I had nil micro sol, I used Mr Setter, which was far too hot and damaged one of the roundels. It was repainted with a mask created on my silhouette machine.

Final assembly consisted of bringing the various components together and adding all the fiddly little details such as gun barrels, flaps, propellers and aerial mast. Oh! And the 30 separate bomb bay doors.

Conclusion

It’s a large model!

In the main, it was a fun build, let down by the very exaggerated surface detailing and some strange engineering choices such as the requirement to fit the turrets before closing up the fuselage

That aside, it was an enjoyable build, and most likely the only 1/48 Wellington we are likely to see, although back in 1975 we all thought the Tamiya Lancaster would be the only 1/48 Lancaster we would ever see!

The Wellington has a lovely quaint ungainly look, belying it being one of the mainstay bombers of the RAF throughout the war. Im looking forward to the ICM Hampden joining it in the cabinet to represent Bomber Command in the first year of the war.

Vickers Armstrong Wellington Ic 149 SQN R.A.F Mildenhall UK 1940

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Eduard 1/48 P-51D Mustang

/ Bruces Scale Models / 5 Comments
  • Purchased; 2023
  • Built; 2024
  • Enhancements:
  • drop tanks Eduard Brassin
  • Wheels. Eduard Brassin
  • Decals; OOB

Whoever said “Box art doesn’t sell” obviously has never laid eyes on this particular box. Because it absolutely made me pull the kit off the shelf at Frontline Hobbies in Newcastle NSW and march straight to the checkout.

Prior to this, a few friends experience with building the Eduard Mustang had left me with the impression it was one of Eduard’s more fiddly kits to assemble. That and the fact there were a few 1/32 examples of the Mustang resting in the stash made me slightly ambivalent about building the Eduard 1/48 example.

Construction

There is certainly some merit in the suggestion, the better the kit, the better the result will be. Of course a decent result can be achieved from any kit, but when, say, talking about the Walrus I did earlier in the year, far more effort is required to deliver a good result as opposed to a newer tooled kit like this Eduard kit. From opening the box to applying the final navigation light took me about a fortnight, it would have been less if I had not diverted some effort into filling the wing panel lines to represent the puttied wing joins of the Mustang’s laminar flow wing. Initially this seemed like a simple task, super glue being flowed into all the lines with a toothpick. In fact I was congratulating myself on my fast work and how easy this simple task had been.

Until the first coat of primer revealed a few infuriatingly still visible panel lines. These stubbornly remained so despite 2 other filling and sanding sessions. They finally disappeared when medium super glue was used instead of the thin CA that had previously been used.

The rest of the model assembled flawlessly, with very few fit issues, although part PE42 left me perplexed. It appearing far too small and having no real locator of any substance, It wouldn’t surprise me if there is a larger plastic piece in Weekend Edition boxings

Ensure also that you sand flat any burrs or glue globs off the top of the assembled wheel well top and bottom before sandwiching it between the wing halves. talking about the wheel wells, John Colasante from Matters of Scale FB page and PPP Podcast fame has generously shared a mask set he created for painting the spars Yellow Zinc Chromate , if you want to finish your well this way.

Download is here https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F1_YhMnMfNkFKw5rmcnJnBeAj5_50ol1pn%2Fview%3Fusp%3Dsharing%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0qu-N6dP3icPgdzLQSvrnG57iiswOR74Mj3EGm1xqwj8IIM2nq5VdSCd8_aem_o4kzKpw0kSuFAi7NWiVYYw&h=AT3evXFZRQLjhfcgPEo_QMAZkIQJOXXKapXGveyzuhWuLvYF6DEZHIQXvvDB_Nkv4ONbbYu9WaeYNhREejFgU7DeC4hxFmBzu40k4FlY6nnaBi9lbdbJ3a_ufUCqUFR2E3j_ag4&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT12ShwH-ekLdtqAN0q6n7vwcTOyXALRjvAl7585CMtWeF4k3TCOKjMNAnQuUGE_WDYITGq-GvFQNXhbf8YRCEIhBGR2VbWJv_5fhdZpXxVkQYMfHIZQH_HMrCHm66ocDise3DSDbhmQtQF9c3UUyukbKenF5HkUemHw85N4hDgDZWCbYbeX2QZC238qaYk. And I highly recommend having a look around John’s page at his fabulous work whilst you are there.

The tailplane was also a little bit of a loose fit on mine. Another fit issue I had was the spinner halves. A dry fit without the blades gave a nice tight fit, with the blades………. Not So Much, with a gap between the front and back of the spinner.

Leading me to assume the prop hub was the issue. To resolve this, the blades were cut from the hub and inserted once the spinner halves had joined. I have seen no other mention of this issue in any other build blogs, so maybe it was something I had done. On my next Eduard Mustang, I will shave the little boss moulded onto the spinner backplate that you glue the hub to, and see if this also resolves the problem.

These niggles aside, the model flew together. The Mustang, does suffer from the Achilles Heel of all Eduard kits, in that the location tabs for all control surfaces and undercarriage legs are weak and poorly engineered..

Eduard also deserves a smack on the arse for the very poor attachment points on the ordnance and pylons and having the modeller assemble PE sway braces for the stores. This is just silly.

Painting and Decalling

One of the prime aims with this was to simulate a worn natural metal finish. To this end all parts of the aircraft that were left unpainted are primed with Mr Surfacer black, the wings having previously being primed with Mr Surfacer Grey, then sprayed with Tamiya LP11 before being masked. The Black primer was then rubbed down to remove any irregularities. The next stage was to apply a light grey random mottle through a splatter mask. Alclad’s Polished Aluminium was then sprayed followed by Alclad Hi Speed silver , this time through a very fine splatter mask. I have seen people use a torn piece of of teased out scotchbrite pad to achieve the same effect. Alclad white Aluminium was then sprayed, again through a fine spatter mask to leave me with a variegated silver finish, which is exactly what I was after.

The red nose was sprayed by way of upscaling the Eduard paint instructions to the actual kit size, then cutting a template from the painting guide. To do this measure the kit fuselage and then the drawing fuselage size. It’s then a simple matter of dividing the kit part measurement by the drawing measurement. In this case it was 1.16, so the drawing was enlarged by 116%. Instead of using the kit red rudder border decals, I cut a mask on my silhouette machine and sprayed it. The anti glare panel was SMS OD lightened with middle stone. The panel immediately in front of the windscreen was left in neat OD to suggest a replacement panel.

The model was then clear coated with Alclad AquaGloss to prepare for the wash, in this instance Tamiya Dark Grey panel Line accent. However wiping this off with odourless thinners also removed some of the red and Alclad Polished metal. Not sure what the underlying cause of this was. Polished Aluminium is notorious for its fragility, but I thought the clear coat would protect it. Either way, the damage was repaired and the Polished Metal binned. I’ve amassed quite a selection of different branded paints over the years, but these days the ones that don’t consistently perform get binned rather than getting pushed to the back of the drawer.

Eduard’s decals performed magnificently, being bedded down between Micro Set and Micro Sol. The carrier film was removed with nil damage to the underlying decals. The decals then being sealed with another coat of Aquagloss.

As one would hope, the resin 108 gallon drop tanks are far superior to the kit provided ones, being one piece with better defined detail. Although Eduard provides the PE fuel lines, I decided to complicate things by making my own from thin copper wire.

The kit exhausts were drilled out and added, the fit being very tight. Eduard’s resin wheels must have been reprinted. A couple of mates who have built the kit previously, reported their resin wheels were slightly too big in diameter. This necessitated them trimming the bottom of the strut where it joins the yoke, so the wheel fit without rubbing.

Conclusion

Eduard’s Mustang for me was a throughly enjoyable build. There are two more in the stash, and they will get built. Is it the best 48 scale Mustang out there? That will depend on what matters to the builder. I loved the finesse, surface detail and overall buildability of it, with the caveat that some modellers my find it a bit too complex and “over engineered” for their liking, but the modeller can virtually build any sub variant of the Mustang from any boxing. That has to be a plus. For me, it’s the best Mustang currently available, well, until Tamiya decide to retool their ageing 1/48 P-51D.

Well, that’s the “Would I build it again” answered. My other question is always “Where could I have improved?” Well on this one, whilst happy with my general construction, my finishing skills again let me down. The mottled NMF technique still needs a little refinement, as does my weathering, especially the blending of the oils, and – again- I can see Ive not cleaned up the wash too well in some places. You always find this out once the matt varnish has dried!

There’s only one way to fix this.; Build. More. Models!

P-51D-10. 355th FS. 4thFG. 8th AF U.S Army Air Forces Debden UK 1945

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Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito NFII

/ Bruces Scale Models / 4 Comments
  • Purchased; 2024
  • Completed; 2024
  • Enhancements
  • Wheels. Brassin
  • Gun barrels and pitot tube Master Detail
  • Landing Lights. AK lenses
  • Decals; Xtradecals 23 SQN RAF 1940-1990

This model filled the need for a bit of a short sharp build interlude from my rather large ongoing 1/48 Hercules project.

This particular came into my collection earlier this year after being sourced for me by a friend, who had in turn sourced it from another modeller. It came half started but given I paid only 10 AUD for it, I was happy to take it on. the work done though wasn’t great. The wings had been glued together without first placing the landing light lenses in their holes, the nacelles had also been glued to the wings leaving a few steps, and one set of undercarriage struts had been assembled including the wheel with an untreated join. The original builder had also glued on the flame dampeners without first adding the exhausts.

Whilst these were all annoying, they were not unfixable, save the exhaust dampeners, they would just have to be left empty and see through .

Construction

Although one of their earlier kits from the 90s, Tamiya’s Mosquito still exhibits their legendary fit and ease of assembly. The cockpit is very simplified, even by Tamiya standards, so didn’t take long to build and paint at all. As this was going to be a quick build, I was not too worried about accuracy, so did not delve into the correct radio fit, in itself a rabbit hole, for the particular machine I was doing.

With the cockpit completed, and the wings already done, assembly of the kit was achieved in no time! I deviated from the instructions in joining each nose half to its respective fuselage half before gluing the now whole fuselage halves together. Should you build the kit as per instructions though, rest assured the completed nose mates very neatly with the completed aft fuselage.

The centreline nacelles seams proved particularly stubborn to eradicate , needing several applications of CA glue and sanding. The seam on the wheel well rear bulkhead was hidden by skinning with a thin piece of plastic card. The steps the previous builder had introduced when glueing the nacelles to the wings were somewhat lessened by rehydrating the glue join with tamiya extra thin glue and then reglueing the rear of the nacelles. They still required some filling to make a gap and step free join at the rear of the wing .

The top of the fin was reduced by 2mm by the simple expedient of tracing the outline of the one fin half onto the inside of the other fin half 2mm lower measuring from the top of the fin. The fin above this line then being cut and sanded down to this line. When the fuselage halves are joined, the other fin half is sanded down to match. The rudder hinge line will then have to be rescribed 2mm lower than the existing one. To be honest, Im really not sure it makes a very visible difference to the look of the model, this modification was called out by a thread on Britmodeller. If I build any more tamiya Mossies, it won’t be a correction that will be repeated by me. The clear under fuselage hatch will also need to be filled and its outline eradicated as it was not present on the fighter bomber version. Tamiya including it as the fuselage parts are also used in the bomber version which does have the hatch. The assembled undercarriage leg had the wheel cut away, and both legs had their axles replaced with brass tube. The holes in the lovely Brassin wheels being drilled to match. The mudguards also had the lightening holes added.

Painting and Decorating

My chosen scheme was a 23 SQN Night intruder based in Malta. This decision was arrived at purely by spotting the scheme whilst going through one of my decal folders looking for something else. How many of us have done this! there is a good photo of the actual aircraft on there Imperial war Museum site that confirms Xtradecal have got the scheme correct, although the machine did not have the radar aerials as depicted on the sheet. So starting off on the top surfaces, Gunze Medium Sea Grey was airbrushed on. The helpful camouflage plan tamiya include was photocopied before the grey bits were cut out and taped to the model so the green could then be airbrushed on, in this instance Tamiya RAF Green type 2. Blu tac sausages were used to mark out the upper camouflage delineation line and the black undersurfaces sprayed with SMS German Grey and SMS CARC Black highlights. The black demarcation on this aircraft was unusually high and also formed a wavy line on the nose and nacelle sides , all of which were reproduced on the model, although I could have possibly gone higher on the nose.

The model was then gloss coated before a wash was applied to all engraved detail using tamiya panel line colours, in this case dark grey and dark brown over the MSG and DG respectively and black used along the control surface and openable hatch lines.

The upper wing roundels gave me a few problems with them refusing to settle down wrinkle free, three different roundels having to be used before I was happy. The roundel that lies over the stiffening rib also refused to mould itself to the rib, instead tearing regardless whether I left the decal alone or tried to mould it over the rib with the aid of a cotton bud. Eventually we got there after another 3 roundels. No wonder people paint on markings! The wing do not walk squares had their inside carrier film cut away to reduce the chances of silvering. I didn’t do this nearly neatly enough. You can see the ragged edges on the model, although there was no silvering.

Photos did not show the overall paint finish looking too worn, although there was a fair bit of grime around the nose and spinners. I probably didn’t add enough, jut relying on some airbrushed brown /black stains around fuel fillers and along wing roots. Piant chips were applied with a silver pencil.

This just left the final assembly and again, a bit of earlier sloppy modelling came back to haunt me when adding the machine gun barrels. I had earlier during assembly, cut the barrels away from the breeches, knowing I would be replacing them with the master brass barrels. What I didn’t do though was be precise in drilling the holes to accept the replacement barrels, consequently, I had great difficulty in. adding and aligning the barrels. The thing to do would have been to leave the nose cap off until final assembly as it was a good fit, and this would have ensured straight barrels that would have also been far easier to add to the breeches. Little lapses in planning like this and not thinking through all steps constantly let my builds down.

I really need to address it – despite saying “I will on the next model” – to lift my models.

The underwing landing lights were represented by using AK 4mm light lenses glued with white glue to a supporting plinth of blu tac.

The wheels were weathered with a wash of Mr Weathering Colors “sandy wash” with the excess being wiped off with a cloth. Finally the masking could be peeled off the canopy, and I was happy to see on this occasion nothing had leaked or marked it, despite Eduards ill fitting mask set.

Conclusion

This was a quick build done on an impulse to build a machine that I liked the look of. The opportunity was also taken to get this half built model out of the stash and provide a bit of a respite from a bigger build. Consequently, a lot of short cuts were taken with the finish. This aside, I am still quite happy with the completed model. There are two more tamiya 48 scale in the stash, a bomber and another fighter. I enjoyed the build enough to still want to build them at some stage in the future.

De Havilland Mosquito NFII. Royal Air Force. Luqa Malta 1942

Arma Models 1/48 Hurricane MkIIc

/ Bruces Scale Models / 2 Comments
  • Purchased; 2023
  • Completed; 2024
  • Enhancements;
  • Guns; Master Detail
  • wheels ASK distributors
  • Decals; Eagle Strike Night Hurricanes Part 1

Introduction

The Arma Models 1/48 Hurricane was the perfect antidote to the preceding Walrus It is a lovely fitting, well detailed model that builds up very quickly. the surface detail is some of the best out there, Arma using both raised and recessed detail to achieve the multitude of rivets on the wings. The fabric surfaces are not overdone, also being rendered subtly. Heres hoping Arma follow it up with the Mk1.

Construction

Really there’s nothing that I can add here that the many YouTube builds of the kit don’t already cover. The cockpit whilst being a little fiddly to clean up fits perfectly. It even clips into place without the need for any glue, although obviously you do need to use glue. For one thing, your seat will fall out! Talking about the seat, the kit one is a little thick, my boxing came with a lovely resin item, making the kit seat redundant. Same for the exhausts.

Some further thoughts;

Be precise cleaning up all sprue stubs , ensuring all mating surfaces are flat as this determines how much filling you will need to do.

If you are fitting the drop tanks, you can dispense with filling the shell ejection ports as suggested by Arma as the drop tank pylons cover the holes that need filling

Added details,; Obviously this is entirely up to the individual modeller how far he goes with adding all this, but Id suggest, at a minimum, the radiator bracing, upper nav. light, brake lines and rudder control lines although only the prominent brake lines were added to my model. I did open up the slot in the rear armour plate to allow the shoulder harness tail to fit through.

When choosing a particular airframe to model, check such details as round or rectangular rear view mirror, cockpit ventilation slots present or not, glare shields fitted or not and IFF aerials as these details varied greatly from airframe to airframe. As an example the aircraft I modelled had the cockpit ventilation slots fitted and no glare shield whereas other planes in the same Sqn did not have the slots or had the glare shields. Photos are your friend, and for RAF Aircraft, Flickr and the IWM website are the first places I visit. If I have any questions, Britmodeller will usually have the answer.

Finishing

A mate of mine, being Kiwi likes to finish a lot of his WW2 aircraft as aircraft that were flown by NZ pilots. Obviously he can’t do this with modern day subjects as NZ don’t have an Air Force of note anymore ( Sorry all my Kiwi followers, Im assuming you all have the same sense of humour as my mate that requires you to keep on kicking that dead horse until its completely lifeless!!)

So when I found an 87 Sqn, machine that was flown by an Aussie, Sgt B Bawden from Sydney, I decided to take a leaf from Calum’s (rather thin) book. My model was always going to be finished as an 87 Sqn machine so an Aussie pilot was the icing on the cake. Of course there were no available decals for Sgt Bawden’s machine in 1/48 scale meaning the scroll and NIGHT DUTY title would need to be hand painted. The below photo shows the actual machine, and Yes, I keep referring to aircraft as machines because thats how Biggles referred to them !

Researching the 87 Sqn machines revealed they were a Night Intruder Squadron, with overall black aircraft, however as the aircraft were required for daylight missions over the Dieppe beaches to support the landing their top surfaces were hastily painted with brushes in the temperate land scheme which at that stage would have comprised of mixed grey, (not Medium sea grey as Ive used) and dark green.

To achieve this rough look the model was first painted overall black, then a very patchy coat of MR Paint MSG applied by airbrush. Panzer putty was then used to mask off the grey areas and the green applied, this time using Gunze . The demarcations o these aircraft were not standard and differed from machine to machine.

There are some excellent articles on Britmodeller regarding these schemes, well worth a read if you love getting into the minutia of these things. It appears on this particular aircraft, the green covered the black quite well, but the grey, not so much. The plan was to brush tamiya MSG around the codes to emphasise the brush painted nature, but of course, I didn’t have any.

The wing roundels were sprayed on using masks from Hawaiian Air Depot https://www.hawaiianairdepot.com/shop/p/coming-soon-87-squadron-hurricane-night-intruders-for-the-148-arma-mk-iic

The rest of the national insignia were from the kit decal sheet. Codes came from a generic Xtradecals RAF code sheet. Colours for the wing roundels were Tamiya Flat Red mixed with a bit of Hull Red until a matt with the decals was achieved. The blue was Royal Blue with a few drops of Flat Black.

With regard to the HAD masks, I thought a real shortcoming with the set was no masks for the underside demarcation. Aircraft from this squadron had quite distinctive wavy demarcation on the empennage, and HAD should really have included these on their otherwise very complete mask set as its a unique feature of these schemes

That just left the scroll. The Eagle Strike Night Hurricanes Part 1 sheet contains a red scroll of the right size, but it reads – actually I can’t remember what it reads, but it certainly wasn’t NIGHT DUTY!. Underneath this red decal, the modeller applies a slightly larger white decal which allows the white border and lettering to appear.. Current sources suggest the scroll on Bawden’s aircraft was red with yellow border and lettering.

This was achieved – after a night of thinking about it in my sleep – by cutting out the underlying scroll shape from yellow decal using the Eagle Strike decal as a template. this only took 4 goes!

The lettering on the red scroll was painted out and I found some tiny tiny yellow decal letters to spell out Night Duty, as you can imagine, these were incredibly difficult to apply and I resorted to (untidily) brush painting the I and Y

No one seems sure how long these aircraft stayed in this scheme so I went light with the weathering. Just some black chips around access hatches and wing roots and exhaust stains as evident in the photos. The chipping on the canopy was achieved with the hairspray technique.

The exhausts were painted an orangey colour as the real things were coated with a paint that reduced glare, hence why this particular machine is not fitted with the glare guards./ Feedback from a couple of modelling friends led to me darkening them up as my mates felt they were too orange. They were shaded with a black brown mix, which I feel does make them look better. They are 3D printed by ARMA and have incredible detail. Far and above better than the kit offerings.

Conclusion

The Arma Hurricane is highly recommended. Although Arma market the IIc and IIc Trop as separate boxings, all the IIc boxings come with the parts to make a tropical or Night Fighter, so it doesn’t really matter which boxing you buy unless you are after one of the particular kit schemes. The only thing I wish I had done differently was use a mixed grey rather than the Medium Sea Grey for the camouflage.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable kit and I have already ordered a Sea Hurricane and a IIb . As Molly Meldrum would say ” Do yourself a favour”

Hawker Hurricane IIc 87 Sqn. RAF Charmy Down UK June 1942

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HpH 1/32 Supermarine Walrus

/ Bruces Scale Models / 5 Comments
img_0681-1
  • 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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ICM 1/32 Gloster Gladiator MkII

/ Bruces Scale Models / 3 Comments
  • Purchased; 2020
  • Built; 2024
  • Enhancements;
  • Seatbelts : HGW
  • Gun Barrels Quickboost
  • Instrument Panel; Yahu
  • Flaps; AIMS
  • Carburettor intake; Quickboost
  • Compass pedestal; Quickboost
  • Decals;1 man Army paint masks

ICM released two boxings of the Gladiator. An initial Mk.I boxing followed by the Mk.II boxing a year later.

The MKII boxing being the one to get as it also contains all the MkI parts.

The kit is well moulded and comprises surprisingly few parts. This is the second ICM kit I have built, and they’ve both been very enjoyable build experiences, aided by good fit.

I was very much looking forward to starting this one too.

Construction Notes

Construction on this model started with the engine. No additions were used, it being built straight from the box. The completed engine looking quite busy to my eye. But spark plug leads could be added if desired, for a proper prototypical look. The join between the front collector ring and manifold should be filled, although this would be tricky to clean up, unless using a water based putty.

The breakdown of the cockpit gave me the initial impression ICM had greatly simplified it -true of every kit cockpit. But again upon completion and fitted, it looked suitably busy, especially if you enhance the Instrument panel with one of the 3d printed sets on the market, like Quinta, or as I used Yahu.

The throttle quadrant had two slots cut into it to accept the throttle and pitch control levers, and the rear of it was backed with some scrap card. The compass pedestal was replaced with the better detailed Quickboost item with the -in my case- out of register Yahu compass rose added to the face. The machine guns all had their barrels cut off, to be later replaced with brass barrels from Master Detail. The gunsight, part D19 also needs the reflector added from scrap clear plastic, a strange omission by ICM. 

An example of how ICM have simplified the cockpit is Part C22, the rear shelf, which to be accurate should in fact, not be a shelf, but just the central beam. In the actual machine, you can see down into the fuselage either side. On the port side there is a TR9 radio , the face of which Yahu supplies in their set. Some photos show a rectangular box mounted to this frame that sits behind the pilots head. All this would be quite easy to replicate from scratch if the modeller so desired.

The very plain control stick really should be replaced with either a better detailed resin item, or detailed with sprue and scrap to better replicate the real thing. I just added a hand brake lever to mine, and left it at that 

SMS British interior green was used, with a wash added from Modellers World ”wash for cockpit green.” Photos were conflicting on whether the cockpit was all green or green just above the sill with everything below silver. Mine was all grey green with a silver floor and seat. Once the prominent ejector pin mark in the seatback had been filled, seatbelts from HGW were added

With the cockpit added, the airframe built up fairly quickly, even with the added complication of cutting the flaps out and building up the AIMS PE flaps, which was achieved with some thin super glue applied with a bit of brass wire. The plastic flaps were cut from the kit wings with a thin PE saw after deepening the scribed lines so as to act as a guide for the saw.

Any gaps were filled with my super glue/metallic pigment mix. The underside insert needing a couple of passes before it was completely eradicated . There is no way those skinny little tailplane locating pegs are going to survive a knock, especially given ICMs soft plastic, so they were pinned to the fuselage with an old broken drill shank. The real machine having a gap between the tailplanes and fuselage. Whilst we have the brass rod out, the tail wheel should also have its locating peg replaced with the brass. This is another part that is prone to breakage, especially as ICM would have you fit it early in the construction process. All struts were left off until the painting was completed. Their fit to the wing is both positive and secure, so no problem adding them later. Same with the undercarriage, in hindsight, I wished I had of added it later as it made handling the model during the rigging process trickier. Whatever stage you add them, ensure you check the fit of the wheels to the axles. Mine were a little tight with the consequence that I broke an axle, which was sort of inevitable, given the soft plastic. The silver lining to this was it was repaired with a bit of brass wire that greatly increased its strength and also removed the flex from the plastic.

Painting and decaling

It took a great deal of studying photographs to decide on a scheme. The decision was complicated by the fact I wanted chosen scheme to feature black and white undersides , underwing roundels, early war type roundels and the four colour counter shaded scheme. If you think this would be an easy ask, think again! Early war Gladiators featured a multitude of schemes, sometimes, even in the same SQN. The Munich crisis roundels really appealed to me, but these aircraft were mostly silver undersides with no roundels. Eventually the 615 Sqn machine was picked, and to my joy, upon opening the 1 man Army mask set, roundels and codes for this very machine were included, saving me some Silhouette design time.

Painting started with the white half of the undersides using MRP white. The areas between the ribs were then sprayed with SMS German Cream and MRP Insignia white for some tone differences. The black half was base coated with SMS Camouflage black (my favourite black incidentally) and then the areas between the ribs were sprayed Tamiya rubber black. This was then masked off and a 50:50 mix of Gunze dark earth and MRP middle stone to represent the light earth was then sprayed on the top surfaces of the wings and lower fuselage. Tamiya RAF Green type 2 was mixed with a “smidge” of SMS Yellow for the light green. For painting the flying surfaces, TopNotch masks were used for the pattern, however the masks for the fuselage did not match the camouflage pattern of this particular aircraft , so blu tac sausages were used to mask the camouflage pattern.

These machines had gone over to France camouflaged in the standard DE/DG camouflage in 1939, Whilst there, the newly developed counter shade scheme was applied, possibly around early 1940. I imagine it would not have been the neatest job, due the RAF having no large maintenance facilities in France. In any case Gladiators in France did not last too long, the SQN being re equipped with Hurricanes soon after.

The Dark Earth and Dark Green were Gunze colours subtly shaded with some lightened and darkened mixes.

There is no definitive proof what colours the wheel covers actually were. Both red and green being called out by various profiles and kit manufacturers. I went with green.. The white outline though is very clear from period photos.

MRP Medium sea grey was used for the codes, the roundel colours are tamiya Royal Blue and SMS red, the red at this stage of the war being the bright red.

Rigging

This was by far the most frustrating part of the build. Contrary to all those modelling articles stating how easy EZ line is to use. “Just add a drop of super glue into your pre drilled hole and the line pulls taut” my experience was anything but the simple, relaxing task all these articles and youtube videos make rigging out to be!.

First off, the CA, despite being a new bottle would not stick, not sure if it was the humidity, but you’d think that would help set it. This was after 10 interminable minutes first trying to get the EZ line to into my drilled hole! It seems if the EZ line even sniffs the presence of CA, it curls up, refusing to be poked into the hole. Poking the line into the unglued hole was easy enough, but then getting the CA glue onto your brass wire applicator and then apply it accurately into the hole. You need another two hands!

EZ line was used as I wanted to replicate the flat RAF wires, despite my best efforts, there are some twists in my rigging lines, and by this stage I’d lost all patience in going back and removing the twists. Anyway, for what its worth my method was to attach the various lengths of line into No.80 holes drilled into the top wing, which at this stage has not been attached to the model, ensuring that they would be aligned so as to give the flat effect of the real rigging.

The top wing was then attached and the lines cut to slightly shorter than the required length and fed into the pre drilled holes in the lower wing. This is where it all started to get pear shaped. Anyway, I persisted until all wires were added.

The eagle eyed most you will spot a gas patch white metal RAF terminal used on the lower wing to see how this looked. This was the only one used as I found it too hard trying to line up the others to the exact angle needed, the metal not being malleable at all. Finally it was all painted Vallejo steel. and the model just needed the canopies unmasking and she was done.

Well not quite done as I needed to add the antenna post as ICM don’t include one. Probably a blessing as any part supplied would probably not stand up to the pull of the EZ line that was used for the antenna wire. A mast was formed out of brass wire and glued to the starboard wing, not centrally as ICM show on their box art

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed this build, so much so that I started the MkI that was still in the stash which was initially going to go on the for sale pile. ICM have done a lovely job on this model and delivered it in a scale which does the real aeroplane justice. There are some annoyances, the soft plastic being the main one as it really requires the modeller to replace the tailwheel and stabiliser mounts which otherwise are far too weak and prone to breakage. Other than that, I found the rigging very frustrating, but thats on me! Lots more practise needed before tackling all those Wingnut Wings kits in the stash, me thinks!

Gloster Gladiator MkII 615 SQN RAF St. Inglevert. France 1940

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Airfix 1/48 Hurricane Mk1

/ Bruces Scale Models / 3 Comments
  • Purchased; 2023
  • Built; 2023
  • Enhancements
  • Seat Belts; Eduard
  • Exterior details Eduard
  • Decals; Kit

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

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ICM 1/48 Dornier Do 217 N-1

/ Bruces Scale Models / 3 Comments
  • Purchased: 2023
  • Built: 2023
  • Enhancements:
  • Seat belts; Eduard
  • FuG 202 aerials: Gaspatch Models
  • Wheels: Aires
  • Decals: Painted using montex mask set
  • 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!

Dornier 217N-1 II./NJG4 Luftwaffe. Germany 1943

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Hong Kong Models 1/48 B-25J Mitchell

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  • 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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