Vickers VC-10 1/144 scale

The VC-10 holds a special place in the hearts of many aviation enthusiasts, few aeroplanes can come close to, and I would contend, that none can surpass it for sheer elegance. It is one of those aircraft that just has that certain something extra about it - call it charisma if you like.

Needless to say, by modern standards the design is uneconomic, grossly fuel inefficient and no doubt the greenies will claim it has a carbon footprint the size of Canada (Just what does a carbon footprint look like anyway!?). However the Royal Air Force continue to operate a handful in the transport and air-to-air refuelling rolls and will continue to do so for another four to five years, by which time they will have clocked up half a century of service.

Given its popularity, the VC-10 has not been well served by plastic kit manufacturers with only the Airfix 1/144 scale example being widely available. Originally issued in their "Skyking" range in the 1960s with BOAC markings it was retooled as an RAF Mk K.2 tanker.

I have always felt that the late BOAC livery of royal blue cheat lines and tail fin with the gold 'Speedbird' emblem was designed for the VC-10 perfectly highlighting the aircraft's regal lines and this was the scheme in which I wanted to complete my model. As I only had a K.2 version of the kit to work with this meant 'back converting' it to the airliner version and finding suitable replacement decals. Also I was working to a target date for completion, the model was to be part of an exhibition celebrating British Jet Aircraft in Birmingham's Central Library.

Converting the kit was fairly straight forward, the ventral refueling bulge was cut away from each fuselage half and the resulting hole filed with 40 thou. plastic card bent to match the curvature of the fuselage any discrepancies being corrected later with filler. The locating slots for the wing mounted hose reel drums were similarly filled with plastic card and rubbed smooth with wet & dry glass paper. A fair amount of lead shot was secured in the front fuselage with Milliput to ballast the model and prevent 'tail sitting' and the side windows were blanked off internally with plastic card and filled before joining the fuselage halves together.

Having allowed 48 hrs for the cement to thoroughly dry a quick inspection revealed a problem, the tail fin, moulded integrally with the fuselage was leaning over to starboard at very noticeable angle. There was only one solution, cut the ******* thing off and re-mount it. It soon became clear the plastic along the joint between the fin and the fin was very thin (causing the problem in the first place) so it was necessary to insert a plasticard plug onto which the now separate fin could be attached and all resulting gaps filled with Milliput and sanded down.

The kit engines were discarded and substituted with Bra.Z Models resin replacements picked up at Scale Modelworld, click link below for their full range of resin kits.

The wings tailplane and painting will be dealt with in a future post.

Bra.Z Models kit list


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

IPMS Birmingham Club Meeting

Our hobby is fundamentally a solitary activity, most of us build our models in the privacy of our own individual work room or a shed at the bottom of the garden and it is easy for us to become somewhat withdrawn from society.

The antidote to this situation is to become a member of a modelling club and we are fortunate that we have an active organisation, the International Plastic Modellers Society (IPMS) which fosters our activities. Founded in London in the early 1960s the IPMS has grown to be a truly international society with branches in many countries around the world, as anyone who has visited the annual Scale Modelworld exhibition at Telford, UK will have seen.

I regularly attend meetings of the Birmingham branch of IPMS(UK) and our first meeting of 2010 took place on Sunday 17th January with a good attendance (Especially as annual subs were due!).


One of the themes for the meeting was restoring clear parts and a couple of members gave demonstrations of their methods of re-polishing scratched canopies and the like. Here George Green can be seen showing his technique to Dave Child and Ron Adams while others look on.








Of course other subjects arise, here John Duffield explains his preferred method of achieving a bare metal finish on an Airfix Lightning to Gareth Thomas and Terry Walton. I will return to John's methods in a future post as it is and interesting alternative to my own technique.

We also have a monthly competition and the winner for January was this superb battle ship, HMS Prince of Wales in 1/1200 scale built by Ron Adams.






The great thing about becoming a member of a club is that not only do you benefit from other modellers' knowledge but there is the added dimension of socialising with fellow modellers and over the years I have made a number of good friends, not just locally but throughout the UK and overseas. So don't be a modelling hermit, get out and, to start with, become member of your local club.

IPMS(UK) branches
IPMS Birmingham


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Airfix's new releases for 2010

It has been rumoured for some time that Airfix would be producing a 1/72 scale Vickers Valiant, now that has been confirmed on their website along with a few other goodies.

The Valiant will be a 'Limited Edition' kit so, depending on the quantity of the production run, it could become scarce quite quickly and it may well be worth buying a spare or two to lay down for the future. Finally, all three of the V bombers will have been kitted by a mainstream, mass production manufacturer in 1/72 scale, something we aircraft modellers have wanted since the 1960s!

The other new tooling that Airfix have announced that caught my eye were a Spitfire Mk XII in 1/48 scale - the first Griffon engined version of the Spit. No other kit manufactured has done this variant before in this scale (or any other scale that I can think of), excellent choice Airfix.

Also in the pipeline in 1/48 are a Seafire Mk XVIIc two versions of the Bf-109E and two Westland Lynx helicopters (Army and Navy).

In 1/72 scale there will be a Spitfire Mk Ia, F-86F Sabre plus Canadair Sabre Mk 4, two versions of the Bf-110 (a C/D and an E) a Hawk T.1 and a Harrier GR.9

Of course there are a number of other subjects, for instance a 1/350 scale Trafalgar Class submarine, which I think is a double first for Airfix. Unless my memory is failing me I don't think they have ever kitted a submarine before and I am pretty sure that they are new to 1/350, if you know better please let me know.

It is great to see that Airfix is now in a position to produce new kits that modellers really want. Perhaps, now that it is part of the Hornby empire, they have a marketing team who understand their customers, in the past I have often felt that they still believed that their principal market were 7 t0 14 year old boys rather than middle aged men who were of that age group back in the 1960s and 70s when Airfix was at is peak.

For more information click on this link to go to the relevant page at Airfix's website:
Airfix new for 2010

This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Tyranny or pleasure?

A conversation with one of the regular customers at the Parabellum model shop in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter prompted the theme for this post.

This chap has built models since he was a boy and has tried various types of modelling particularly radio controlled boats, but over the past year has become a real enthusiast for plastic aircraft kits with the Spitfire being his favourite subject. He has been avidly reading articles in modelling magazines about such subjects as weathering, pre-shading and airbrushing and had become confused and unsure about the techniques he is using, asking the question "Am I doing the right thing?".

This led to quite a long, good humoured, discussion- with contributions from Nigel the owner of Parabellum - the conclusion of which is that there are no absolute rights and wrongs. If you are striving for strict historical accuracy then the only way to be sure that you have got it right is if you have a comprehensive set of colour photographs of your subject - unlikely in the case of WWII aircraft. Such is the nature of conflict that many of the planes used in the Second World War were destroyed long before they had lost their factory fresh appearance so heavy weathering is not always applicable.

Later, I was musing on this conversation and expanded my thoughts to encompass the idea of what is a good model and who has right to dictate how we should go about our hobby.

To the question "what is a good model?" my answer is; one that has given its builder something positive such as a sense of achievement or plain simple enjoyment. It does not have to be finished to competition standards or meet someone else's idea of a good model, just so long as it gave you some pleasure.

As to who can tell you how you should build and finish your models the short answer is - nobody!

There are few people (Fortunately, a very small minority) who seem to believe that, having won a few competitions, written some articles in magazines or in some other way come to prominence in the hobby, gives them the right to dictate to the rest of us. I have heard of several instances where modellers have be upbraided by one or of these mini tyrants for some minor infraction such as the wrong shade of paint, as if the fate of nations is going to turn on the matter. Such people do a dis-service to modelling and modellers and only discourage, unlike the vast majority who seek to help and encourage their fellows.

In the end we all build models for our own pleasure and satisfaction and how we go about it, our choice of subject and our individual preferences are unique to us and no-one has the right to tell us if we right or wrong. If you want to finish your aircraft models to represent the planes flown by Biggles, some fictitious squadron or air force, or in some completely imaginary colour scheme of your own devising who is to say that you can't?

Of course, some people build models specifically to enter into competitions and therefore have to meet certain criteria, but again it is their choice and nobody should be forced to meet those criteria if they have no desire to enter competitions. If you model purely for your own pleasure you are entitled to set your own standards regardless of anyone else's opinion.

The key word in all this is YOUR, in other words you bought the kit, paint and materials with your money, built it in your time, to your satisfaction.


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Hasegawa Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (Tony) 1/48 scale

Apart from the addition of an etched brass pilot's harness built straight from the box but finished with Aeromaster decals. The metallic finish is again Alclad the paints being Aeromaster acrylics, the camouflage has been applied deliberately in a rough and ready manner to represent painting at front line unit level.

The Ki-61 may not have had the most distinguished of careers, suffering engine problems, but it was the prettiest Japanese fighter of WWII.


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

City of Birmingham Locomotive - 1/76 scale

For some time I had wanted to build a model of the Stanier Princess Coronation Class locomotive "City of Birmingham" to display on the IMPS Birmingham stand at model shows. The difficulty in achieving this aim was that the only plastic kit that could be used was the old Rosebud-Kitmaster Duchess of Gloucester which has been out of production since 1961 and consequently the few that turn up on the likes of EBay attract high prices making them more of a collector's investment than a build project. The alternative of using a specialist metal kit was also prohibitively costly. The solution to my dilemma came at the Warley Model Railway Show at the National Exhibition Centre two years ago, I got talking to one of the guys manning the Kitmaster Collector's Club stand about what I wanted to do. He promptly produced a Kitmaster box with artwork for the Battle of Britain Class loco, but inside it there was a Duchess of Gloucester, built after a fashion and badly painted, and offered it to me a reasonable price. My wallet was prized from its usual hiding place and cash exchanged.

That evening I got to work on the model, a quick examination led me to the conclusion that it had been assembled by a youngster, in fact it reminded me of my early efforts, glue in places where it should not be, paint hurriedly and unevenly applied with wavy demarcations. Now, there is nothing wrong with this, after all we all started this way, impatient to get a model together and painted so that everyone could admire our handiwork usually followed by it being played with to destruction or shot to pieces with an air rifle or set fire to in the back garden, ah the nostalgia!

Fortunately for me my Duchess of Gloucester had not suffered the usual fate of young boys' models and the inexpert construction worked to my advantage making it fairly easy to separate the kit parts with only some minor damage to the cab roof.

The next stage was going to be to improve the detailing of the kit and adapt it for my purpose, I will be relating that in future posts. Meanwhile, for those that would like to know more about Rosebud-Kitmaster here is a link to the Kitmaster Collector's Club website;
http://www.rosebud-kitmaster.com

Airfix English Electric Lightning F.1 - 1/48 Scale

Built pretty much straight from the box this Lighting is finished in the markings of 74 Squadron, circa 1961. It represents serial no. XM135 the first Lightning to enter squadron service with the RAF and is now preserved at Duxford. It was in this aircraft that Wing Commander W Holden, the senior technical officer at RAF Lynham made an unintentional flight when he inadvertently engaged reheat while running engine tests on the airfield's main runway. Despite his lack of experience (The only plane he had flown before this was the DeHavilland Chipmunk basic trainer) he managed to land the Lightning with only minor damage on his fourth attempt after making three abortive approaches to the runway, a considerable feat of cool headedness!

Click link to hear an interview with Wing Cdr. W "Taffy" Holden on YouTube.

The metallic finish has been achieved using Alclad, using chrome for the intake ring, nose probe and other highly polished areas with a variety of shades of aluminum for different panels. I find Alclad to be the best medium for representing bare metal on models, so long as the instructions are followed a good result can always be obtained. Preparation is the all important factor both in terms of actual surface of the plastic (or whatever medium you are working in) and the priming prior to application, different shades require their own priming - for example chrome needs to be undercoated with gloss black enamel - the instructions on the bottle give the relevant details.

Petition on Facebook for Airfix to re-issue the 1/48 Lightings.



This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Fonderie Miniature Halifax B III - 1/48 scale

The FM Halifax has been described by some modellers as unbuildable but having seen several finished examples at various model shows I beg to differ. For sure it is not as straight forward as a Hasegawa or Tamiya kit, it should be remembered that it is a short run kit and is probably best approached as if it were an injection moulded vacform.

I have acquired three of these kits over the past couple of years and currently have two under construction. The second one to be bought had already passed thought the hands of two other people who had both given up on it. It was nearly complete (Pictured above, after partial dismantling) but had a number of problems.

First and most obvious was that the fuselage was far from symmetrical, appearing to resemble a banana, also the tailplanes were at odd angles and one was set higher than the other. Added to this some parts for the turrets were missing, the upper turret aperture was blanked off and a roughly made replacement solid rear turret had been fashioned out of filler with some metal tubes to represent the guns.

In order to correct these faults it was going to be necessary to partially dismantle the model and find a subject aircraft to finish it as that would not require turrets. The latter was fairly easy to achieve, I remembered seeing a couple of Charles E Brown photographs of a C Mk VIII serial no. PP285 in K. A. Merrick's excellent book on the Halifax. This aircraft was retained by Handley Page for test purposes after WWII, it had a streamlined fairing in place of the tail turret and the no mid upper. It was a particularly attractive aeroplane being mostly bare metal but carrying RAF insignia, so this is the example that I decided to model.

A couple of hours work with a scalpel, razor saw and few other tools had the model stripped back to just the fuselage and the wings with the engines still in place, they were subsequently removed when I notice that some were mis-aligned. I was now ready to start correcting the problems, little did I realise the route this was going to take down. But all that will be related in future posts.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new modelling blog.

My intention in starting this blog is to talk about the models that I am building, future projects and some of the models that I have built in the past. I will also be looking at new kits as they appear and reference sources.

As my interests are mainly aircraft, particularly of World War Two vintage, the content is going to be biased in that direction. But I do build other subjects from time to time, for example one of my current projects is the steam locomotive "City of Birmingham" more on this anon.

Apart from commercial model building (e.g architectural models) I believe that modelling, as a hobby should be pleasurable - in the end if you do not enjoy doing it what is the point?

I will no doubt expand on these themes in future posts, for now happy modelling.

Roland