Painting Tray (Cupboard Review)

What's in teh cupboard before Xmas to do?

The AFV collection (see above):

• 1/72 Italeri/Esci Hetzer (to make up a Command Decision ersatz panzerjaeger late-war company of three)
• 1/72 (notorious as big in scale) Skytrex 1944 Bren Carrier (to be the universal helper to my Paltoon 20 British PBI)

The "half completed" aeroplane collection (see above):

• 1/72 Westland Whirlwind (pain job and decals required)
• 1/72 De Haviland Mosquito (bomb and rocket racks to add, paint and decals required)

Repair jobs (see above):

• 1/48 Spitfire Vb (bits dropped off that need replacing)
• 1/72 Do 17 E/F (bits dropped off and upgrade to paint job)

Terrain Projects (see above):

• The "real water" effect, see interesting scenery box  

Kits lurking in other corners of the house (see above):

• 1/700 Fujimi HMS Hood
• Revell snap-together Millennium Falcon

Can the above be done before 2013 turns into 2014?
(On teh other hand need they all be?)

Returning after a "successful sortie" ... but with a little damage

The propellers have been shot away, the radio aerial is down (but with the rear landing wheel is still intact which really surprised me), one 20mm wing cannon missing, the pilot canopy has been detached and the little thing from under one wing "which I never knew what it did" is now long gone .. the Spitfire VB (1/48 scale) makes a 'crash landing' back at its home aerodrome (see below) ... but any landing you can walk away from is classed as a good landing in my book. All the above is reparable from the 'spares box', so Year 3/4 (combined) gave this Airfix Spitfire a true "combat test". Twenty four seven to eight year old boys and girls have had a good "look and touch" at the iconic Spitfire.Mission accomplished :)

The Luftwaffe Dornier Do.17E/F suffered more, being the bigger plane in a smaller scale (1/72) means it has a certain fragility. The "Spitfire" can register a "confirmed kill" as the Dornier's front perspex canopies.were all detached and the propellers shredded (although the blame for this lies with my youngest son not Year 3/4, he is just under three and "threw it from one side of the room to another").I think this one didn't make it back home to a French airfield.  

Post repair I am thinking of dangling said planes ("out of the reach of the three year old") from my sons bedroom ceilings, a job for the Xmas holidays. 

WWII School Project Completed: 1/48 Spitfire Vb and 1/72 Dornier Do.17E (Airfix)

The deadly foes on the table (see below) with wait ... hold the front page .. decals applied :)

"Snowdrop leader, Snowdrop leader,this is Snowdrop Six, Tally Ho!" ... sorry I couldn't resist it ;) ... I think it looks magical onc those big decals have gone on :)

Meanwhile the bomber drones on (see below) and I think its more sombre decals make it look very menacing (Note:By virtue of European Law Airfix are not allowed to depict the swastika, which would have adorned the rear twin tail flaps - and it is far too hard for me to try and paint on given the project deadline):

Now with a coat of protective varnish on (see below), from a very old but 'reliable' tin of Humbrol 'enamel style' matte. This was after I had an unmitigated disaster trying to use the more modern acrylic matte varnish (in their square tins) and getting it horribly wrong. I had probably rushed it but it looked to my terrified eyes to be drying with a white "winter camouflage" sheen to it .... argh. And this was the Sunday night before the Monday deadline and I had been left in charge putting the "smelly varnish coat on" after the rest of the family had gone to bed! Luckily I had started on the German Dornier Bomber first and spotted the damage, which meant it was so much easier to repaint (I would have ruined the Spitfire's decals) ...whew!

One last flypast before I hand them over with compulsory sound effects "wheewwwizzzooo" (see below). I also like the angry yellow wing stripes and machine gun read patches on the wings. 

Anyway I am chuffed to bits with them both and even better my eldest son thinks they are cool too, paying particular attention to the Spitfire ("that's my boy"). I do intend to "tart" then up a bit when I get them back from the school display, although I've heard the German Dornier has already taken a bit of "flak" damage from the hands of Year 3. I plan to hang both planes from my son's bedroom ceiling.

School WWII Project Nearing Completion

Well we had fun making these.

The magic Humbrol Clearfix worked wonders on the previously tricky (as in I always messed them up) canopies (see below):

It was 'really' useful on the Dornier Do.17's expanse of canopies to fill in the missing gaps in the perspex (see below):

The "Spitty" gets its undersides painted in a peculiar XF-12 IJ Grey, which doesn't seem quite right but according to my conversion chart matches to Humbrol 64 (see below):

The Dornier gets a more traditional paint scheme of light blue for its underside from a 'really' old Humbrol acrylic range they had, but after all these years it's still ready to use from the pot, unlike some more modern paints I could name (see below): 

The Spitfire starts to come together nicely when its camouflage pattern is put on. I am using XF-61 Dark Green and XF-82 Ocean Grey 2 (RAF), the latter being a newer Tamiya paint colour I spotted while I was in a local model shop (Hobbycraft). I was looking at the Tamiya colour schemes on other model kits and borrowed this one off a Tamiya 1/48 RAF Mosquito kit (see below): 

The 1/48 scale Spitfire was such a nice kit to put together, far easier IMHO than the 1/72 scale kits I am used to. You stand a fair chance of even painting the "yellow" along the wing tips and "red" machine gun patches (see below):

The Dornier also gets it's Blitz camouflage scheme. A jagged edge XF61 Dark Green interlocking with a XF-27 Black Green (see below):  

This was the later Luftwaffe 1940 camouflage at the time of the Battle of Britain as opposed to the three colour, with a light grey and a brown alongside a green in the instructions, dating to 1937. The propeller housings get a bright white covering while the propeller blades get a surprising XF-61 Dark Green (I was expecting black) covering (see below): 

They are taking shape nicely but we are coming to that dreaded phase of mine, the decals, however for aircraft they simply are a must! Also, for the record, there were little hands helping me along the way, though they did take long telly breaks from time-to-time (Merlin and Mr maker being two of the CBBC culprits).

Airfix Dornier Do.17 E/F Assembly Question: Am I doing it right?

As part of the 'WWII School Project' I am putting together a Dornier Do.17 E/F, but am I doing it correctly? A classic old Airfix kit of a plane that tried to 'bomb my dad' when he was in the 'Home Guard' (see below):

 
I came to "an assembly issue". It all started with this chap, the rear gunner and radio operator sitting on his stool (see below):  

Looking at the instructions I see a different diagram (see below, top left corner - the spar that the seat sits on looks to be completely he wrong or rather a different shape - a classic Airfix now get out of that or have I missed something?):

This is how I put it together (see below):

Not being quite happy with it I changed it to thus, with a 90 degree twist to the gunner to sit more centrally (see below), but have I done it as intended? Or is it a case of a change/amendment that was never corrected in the instructions?

The crew now "complete" inside the fuselage and with the wings on (see below): 

A bit of a cockpit close-up (see below):

The whole thing from a distance (see below). Next to do is the clear glass canopies, previously a nightmare operation for me but now I use my secret weapon Humbrol Clearfix :)  

"Model on" as Paul from NZ says ;)