Christmas Airfix!

I've been having a few problems with the Lightning. The cockpit doesn't fit properly, had to do a load of trimming to get the fuselage halves to meet at the front. The top of the seat now sits a bit high so the canopy won't fit correctly. I'm going to have to try and get it out to do some more adjustment. 🙁

Any views on Tamiya aircraft kits?

I have my eye on one of these.

http://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/tamiya-60720-tornado-f3-1-72-aircraft-model-kit/

I've got a pile under my drawing board that need to built at some point...

Westwings Skylark - Semi Scale RC half built
1:32 Revell Phantom that is just Massive!
1:24 Airfix 109 - Got all the Eduard bits for this too, So far I've got as far as making the engine almost scale and cutting out the fuselage to have an open panel - On the field sort of look.

RE: Tamiya - The Tamiya 1:48 is a classic I've built a couple, they are a far better than Airfix which are a little shit really if you take off the rose tinted glasses.

The Tamiya Tornado F.3 is the Italeri mould, not up to the full Japanese standards but ok.

The Tamiya 1:48 Sea Harrier is most definitely not up to their usual standards. I'm sure it's an Airfix imposter

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Just taken a punt on one of these because:

1) As a child of the 80's I have a thing for Soviet planes.

2) It was 13 quid.

This is getting a bit silly now. I've got three on the go with a completion rate of one a week and a backlog of about ten.

Somehow I have ended up with a landing craft.

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I will never build this.

Ever.

Gah. Another “melting” incident. Using a big lump of filler as nose wheel ballast has turned the radar dome on the Lightning into something that resembles a jalapeno. When/if it dries I’ll try and rescue it. If I can't it is a £7.95 lesson on my model building learning curve. No point in trying to buy the three spare parts as they will cost more than the kit itself.

This has however made me find that self-adhesive lead weights are available. And it was best to destroy the Lightning rather than the more expensive Mig-29 and Su-27 that are next on the production line.

How do you “brush painters” do the darker areas round control surfaces and panel lines?

Have a look here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/

How do you “brush painters” do the darker areas round control surfaces and panel lines?

Underpaint black then bring it to light.

(Games workshop style)

I use this almost on everything apart from large surface/panel and unless I'm painting flesh in which case I underpaint white and then send the shadows to dark using artist inks.

(Apologies if thats teaching you to suck eggs)

Nah. All tips welcome! I'm coming back to this after a 30 year break.

juanghia - Member

Underpaint black then bring it to light.

(Games workshop style)

Nothing gets brought to light games workshop style, it's ENDLESS DARKNESS

Meh. The Lightning is ruined. Shit.

Can't you make it look like it's been shot up at the front, and is going down in flames from your lad's ceiling? 😀

It's a shame, as I was waiting to see if you had the same cockpit problems that I did, or if I'm just as lame at building these things now as I was years ago.

I did do a test to see if it went together before I ordered a replacement. It did. 😀

I'll finish the Lightning and let my lad have a go at building up the other one with the warped radar dome and fairing. I'll pinch the pilot though for my Su-27.

Went a bit OTT with the filth. I'll have to tone it down on the next one.

Lots of practice dry-brushing various combinations of paint and inks appropriately thinned and layered, and keep it subtle! It has to replicate the way it actually happens on the aircraft while in service; the plane starts off all clean and shiny, but flying causes oil, exhaust gasses, dirt and dust from the air itself to build up in very thin, faint layers, accumulating over many hours of combat flying, so instead of trying to dry-brush fairly dark paint in a thin layer, you have to gradually build up very thin layers of very thinned dark ink or paint, just kind of 'sneaking up' on it, gradually adding more layers where the staining is naturally going to be darker, inline with the stub exhausts, behind the gun ports and shell ejection ports, etc, and building up very thin layers of thinned silver along all the leading edges of flying surfaces, prop blades, etc.
Loading the brush, then wiping a fair bit off on scrap card, or paper* by brushing like you'll be doing on the model, then brushing on the model!
It's a time-consuming process, but it pays off if you don't rush it; many hours modding and painting AD&D figures teaches you that, they're a lot smaller than an average plastic kit!
*Old phone directories are very handy things to use for this, you can mix paint in small amounts on a page, wipe the brush to get the dry-brushing just right, then rip the page off and bin it after each session.
I've still got one of the really thick ones, with the heavy board covers, from when I used to paint AD&D figures and pin-stripe/sign-write friends cars and bike helmets, very handy thing to have. 😀

Coming at this from a the model railway world, (not airfix i'm affraid but i guess its all the same) i really would recommend humbrol weathering powders. its early days at the the moment and still experimenting but i'm liking them. I mix these up with water and apply as a generous wash over the pristine paintwork. then when dry i wash off the excess with either a tissue or a cotton bud. You can also apply them neat as a dust to the model and move them about. Again excesses can be washed off. Then when happy set them with a spray coat of varnish. The results so far have been rather pleasing. furthermore over the course of a couple of days they seem to tone down and have a very subtle effect.

There are some humbrol channel videos on youtube that i would recommend. As ever they make it look very easy but do give you some ideas to practice with. I knocked up a painted panel of plastic and practiced on this before i attacked the real thing.

I use flory dark dirt wash.

Revell Stuka.

Was a little more restrained on the weathering, just adding exhaust muck and something behind the guns.

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I've been having a few problems with the Lightning. The cockpit doesn't fit properly, had to do a load of trimming to get the fuselage halves to meet at the front.

Just spent 2 hours trimming it down. What a bastard! There are 4 raised lumps from where the fuselage halves were ejected from the mould that prevent it going together. I had to sand down the sides of the air intakes too and it still needed some filler. The fairing over the instrument panel didn't fit either. Got there in the end but whoever was responsible for the QC on that wants beating with a stick.

I've got another one to build too! Shit! I managed to rebuild the bit that I melted with filler by comparing it with the part from the replacement kit. It looks OK and only I'll know that it is a bodge.

Getting 4g of weight in the nose was a PITA too. I've got some lead wheel balance weights, but had to hack saw them up to get them to fit in. Can't say I'm having much fun with this one.

his popped up on my FB feed, I think the attention to detail is incredible.

Harry, you need some [url= https://www.deluxematerials.co.uk/gb/rc-modelling/83-liquid-gravity-5060243900470.html ]Liquid Gravity[/url], it's not lead, you can pour it into tiny crevices to add weight. I use it for model railways, decent stuff.

The fairing over the instrument panel didn't fit either.

Ah yes, that's my next job. Build has progressed precisely nowhere since I came back from my weekend away, I may do a bit later.

Must resist the urge to buy that [url= https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/themes/spitfire/supermarine-spitfire-pr-xix-1-72.html ]new Spitfire kit[/url], just in case I don't finish this one!

You can trim a load off the panel because you can't see it anyway when the fairing is on.

Once I'd got that on I found that the canopy fitted perfectly though. I was getting a bit sick of it by this stage at 00:20 this morning.

I got that Spitfire for Christmas. My lad is making it and doing a reasonable job of it too.

tthew...

Check this out! http://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/airfix-a50173-battle-of-britain-75th-anniv-gift-set-1-72-aircraft-model-kit/

Ooh, that'd see me right through the winter, (even if started it over Easter!) Bookmarked.

That 262 is stunning

john_drummer - Member

Have a look here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/

Mike who runs Britmodeller used to ride mountain bikes & started the now defunct ChesterMTB website. Sadly he has a long term illness that has stopped him from riding 🙁

Damn ... that BoB 75th Anniversary Box Set has sold out now ... 🙁

That Me-262 really is impressive! I've just been reading about the Me-262 in Len Deighton's book 'Fighter'.

That Me-262 video is utterly amazing! I just sat watching it with a big stupid grin on my face.

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Slight change of subject matter for me. Been a long time since I made anything with a wheel at each corner.

Just got one of these.

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It is on the build list after I've finished the Lightning and done the SU-27.

PSA.

[url= http://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/revell-de-havilland-mosquito-1-32-aircraft-model-kit-04758/ ]1:32 Mosquito[/url]

Seems like a lot of kit for the money but I don't know how good it is.

Moulds date from 1971 but are supposed to be ok. Nothing like the quality of the Tamiya kit but that is hugely more expensive. Lots of after market bits available now that can be used to bling it up though and for £15 seems pretty good.

That's going to be a big 'un

I did Revell's 1:32 Beaufighter a few years back, raised panel lines rather than recessed 🙁 huge thing. 1:48 is as big as I like to go for aircraft, but for multiple engined jobs I think I'll stick to the smaller scales

My lad (9 years old) said "Where will you put it?". I stepped away from the BUY IT NOW button.

The Sea Vixen arrived today. The instructions are comically shit and the ejector seats are too small. But I knew this before I bought it.

I'll pack the seats up and I've downloaded the Airfix painting and decal instructions.

Well thanks guys. I am probably going to have to buy the Tamiya Mossie. 🙁

Lightning.

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Not a happy kit to make TBH as the air intake assembly is too big for the fuselage halves, so a lot of cutting and filing was required.

I experimented with ink washes for weathering for the first time too, and I'm quite pleased with the effect.

This, however, is my proudest kit achievement yet.

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Spitfire PRXIX made by my lad with some guidance, but not a lot of actual hands on help, from me.

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It is his first kit.

Liking the 'Lightening' very much HTS ... what ink(s) did you use for the washes?

Was this Airfix's 1/72 lightening? I don't recall any major issues with the fuselage - was yours 'warped'?

Good effort with the Spitfire PRXIX by your son.

Some acrylic washes from the local model shop. French stuff for military vehicles at £2.75 a bottles. I used a “dark tone” and a “light tone” with various mixes of the two. The light one looks like an oil leak. Washed it on and wiped it off. I then gave the whole thing a matt clear coat to flatten out any variations in the paint and to tone the decals down. I also did some different shades in the green on various panels and control surfaces.

I used it to re-weather the Mosquito from further back in the thread too. It now looks like it has crashed in a swamp, but the effect is more realistic. I painted on some silver to look like exposed metal around the pilots’ door and some of the panels on the wing and bomb bay whilst I was at it.

The Lightning is the 1/72 F.2A. There are various mould ejector pin “lumps” on the inside of the fuselage halves that interfere with the (pointless) intake tunnel assembly. I had to cut them off and still needed file off a lot of material from the intakes. If you don’t there is a gap of about 2mm when you put it all together. Tthew further back in this thread has had the same problems.

Due to my ineptitude (I knackered the radar and fairing by melting them with filler, but rebuilt them using the second kit as a guide) I’ve got another one to build, but I’ll wait a bit before doing it. My lad wants it, but it will put him off for life. He’s doing a Messerschmitt ME109 next. It is as easy to make as the Spitfire but with a more complex paint job.

Next up for me is an Italeri SU27-D Sea Flanker. The kit is a bit of a shocker. It goes together OK but there are several bits that you just glue on without any slots or guides to get the position correct. Also, they have been a bit liberal with the truth when it comes to the accuracy on the kit. It is meant to be a naval Sea Flanker with canards behind the cockpit, but it looks that they have just taken a regular Flanker and added a couple of extra wings to stick on and chucked in an arrestor hook. The canard detail is completely wrong as they don’t attach directly to the fuselage in real life but to a fairing. This suits me however as I can leave the canards and the hook off and paint it up as a SU35 with a better camouflage scheme.

The nose landing gear will be wrong, twin wheel naval spec rather than single wheel air force, but not as wrong as the version with the canards.

I think this one will be all about the paint job.

After that it is the Sea Vixen with its appalling instructions that I’ll bin. I’ve downloaded the Arifix ones and I’ll wing it from them.

Italeri SU-27D Sea Flanker finished as an SU-35.

The kit was quite frankly rubbish. Rubbish to the extent that I will avoid Italeri in the future, which is a shame as they do a load of late Cold War stuff that I would have bought.

Anyhow... The canards on the Sea Flanker were just wrong. So wrong in fact that I didn't put them on. By ditching the canards, the arrestor hook and the naval emblems and changing the colour scheme I ended up with this.

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That's nice. Still not finished mine. Might have a crack later.

That 262 video is fantastic, the casual way he does the camo with an airbrush, and the fine stuff like hydraulic lines, the night radar antenna, just everything, really.
Love the SU-35 too, terrific aircraft, and as a big fan of all sorts of exotic camo patterns, the 'dazzle' camo used on various Russian planes is wonderful, works beautifully on that model.

I'm still struggling with the bodywork on my Tamiya Mercedes 300SL. Tried Tamiya rattle can paint. Too much too quickly 🙁 strip it back especially where it had run / pooled
plan B, decant the paint from the rattle can & use in my airbrush. Not enough decanted, rattle can empty, not prepared to buy another 🙁
Plan C, Revell Aquacolour (tried & tested for me) 99 Aluminium plus 01 Clear gloss. Nearly there, needs a couple more coats of clear but I'm about out of patience at the moment. I think I need to box it & come back later, when my mojo returns.
In the meantime, I have a 1/6 scale Cylon Centurion to build...

I haven't made a model in years, but the local hobby shop had an Eagle in the window.
An Eagle Transporter from Space 1999. 😯

How much and where?