John Symmons

Hi Ratch. Wow! All that for skin tones can't wait to see and read about the rest, This is one posting I'm following with interest. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Not that I know off but somehow I must have not back out correctly after the first save. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Great It's Gone. JtP

Two twist drills, 1 mm & 1.2 mm to drill out the port holes on the Academy Graf Spee's hull; all 350+ of then. If Patrick can do it on his 600th scale Queen Elizabeth I can do it on a 350 scale model. Tried it on the Airfix Graf Spee and it took ages. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom Err! Umm this was posted last night but now I can't get it to go away. every time I open this forum It's still there. hopefully if I repost it it'll go away. Mr admin if you see this please deleat it. Thanks JtP

Two twist drills, 1 mm & 1.2 mm to drill out the port holes on the Academy Graf Spee's hull; all 350+ of then. If Patrick can do it on his 600th scale Queen Elizabeth I can do it on a 350 scale model. Tried it on the Airfix Graf Spee and it took ages. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi GNR-Gordon-4 If your into WW2 German army stuff you might like to look at Roden kits, they do a whole range of Opel Blitz models including an airfield refueling tanker plus many other including a Command Opal Bus, these should be fairly easily available in the UK. Also Hasagawa did a range of 1/72 vehicles that you might find interesting, not sure of the availablity of them now but I'm sure they turn up on E-vll Bay. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Dad Paul B, 7 FAAMAN. Thanks for your comments, and I agree with the comment about the state-of-art of injection moulding at those eras. I,m busy with the Academy 350 tooling which is a much more modern tooling but still they've made some glaring mistakes. one woners what theyused for references. This is the standard model with the plastic reailings, which whle grossely over sized, are a good reprentation especially seeing as they're moulded. I do have the premium edition with PE, brass guns, and wooden deck, and waiting in the wings so I'll be using this one as a sort-of practice run. At the end of my posting I mentioned the Eagle Wall kits, and it looks like I've discovered a new freind that has some partially or unmade that he said I can have, hopefully there's a Graf Spee in there. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi James. Thanks for the chuckle, I needed that. But they'd better be VERY long range bombers. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Airfix K.M. Graf Spee.A quick build. /media/tinymce_upload/70a2ed618c7ded816a0b14777e74613d.jpg When I was photographing the Airfix “E: (S) boat I used the assembled hull of the Airfix Graf Spee as a size comparison, and thought this needs to be completed. As I’d always liked the Graf Spee and it was one of my earliest memories of model building having made the Aurora version ( see my modelling memories posting) way before Airfix produced the 600 scale series of models. I do remember enjoying that build and since then I seem to have an affinity with the ship. When Airfix made the Graf Spee at about the same time as their HMS Ajax I made it and always hoped Airfix would get around to the HMS Exeter to complete the trio. I remember thinking way back then that the Aurora version was the better of the two models . Why I thought that I’ve now no idea maybe it was because it was my first Graf Spee. About 15 years back a friend at work brought my a load of Airfix’s 600 scale ships to see if I was interested in buying them and amongst them was the Graf Spee, and I thought why not give it a second go. Shortly after that I saw the Academy 350 scale version of the ship, but that’s another story. Just when I started the Airfix’s version I’m not sure but must have been over 10 years back and I see I’d decided on a water-line version and I’d started to drill out all the portholes. I’d also added some spare PE doors along the superstructure and ladders to the main turrets, these bit must have been left-overs from the WEM Royal Navy Destroyer set I’d used for the HMS Manxman & Cambletown. The superstructure portholes and door placement were copied from the Graf Spee Profile No #4 as was the colour scheme as it depicted the ship at the time of the Battle of the River Plate. That was how I found the kit when I’d used her for the size comparison for the E-Boat photo. The E-Boat is still not finished as I got side-tracked with the Graf Spee, thinking she’ll do for a quick relaxing build, you all know what I mean just assembling model without bothering too much about the out-come. It didn’t work. Not sure how old this kit is but it’s now really showing it age , this release is from the Humbrol era but is sill the same kit as she was first released. While it’s sad to say I doubt it’ll be re-released, and personally I’m glad that of that, as the kit is very inaccurate in many respects maybe someone like Patrick with the patience of Job and determination could make a really accurate build of it for my part I was again disappointed as the first time with the final outcome. The kit seems to be a mish-mash of the all the pocket battle ships as Airfix has got so many things wrong, maybe the information wasn’t available at the time or they rushed the model out before really checking every-thing. I’ll start on the positive basically the model does look like the Graf Spee with the tower bridge and the 11 inch triple turrets and the size is about correct they even managed to mould the Coronal plaque on the tower bridge (Some thing Academy missed even in 350 scale so well done Airfix.) and the fit of the parts is good if not perfect, needed lots of sanding and scrapping to remove mould seems. The hull and deck needed some work but nothing most modeller’s couldn’t easily handle. The other thing Airfix got right was the gun shield for the secondary armament; on the previous ships these were open at the back with only a curtain to close them off ( as in the Academy kit) but the Graf Spee was different in that doors were used as seen in photos of her in Montevideo harbour, ( See profile 4 page 89.) the other oddity is that many accounts state the the Arado float plane was ditched shortly before the battle as the engine broke down, but the same photo clearly shows the shows the burnt-out wreck of an Arado still on the catapult presumably the second Arado. On the negative side I’ll start with the grossly over thick main mast without the tripod stays and the bow and stern jack stays, all these would have been better if replaced with stretched sprue. The tower mast is way too short, in all fairness this mast was telescopic so maybe Airfix used a photo of the Spee when she was going through the Kiel Canal with her mast retracted to clear the bridges. Then there’s the aft mast which is totally missing, all there is is a pointy thing above the range finder, I made one from stretched sprue which only high-lighted the other masts over-thickness. The other masts and Jack stays I left as is as by the time I got around to them I was getting a bit jaded also stretched sprue would make rigging impossible. Where-as the masts were too thick the 11 inch guns looked way too thin looking more like long 8 inch ones. The tower bridge looks good except for the missing spars or booms on the top platform, easily fashioned from stretched sprue. (Oddly this is something Academy has also missed even with the Premium Edition.) The 20 mm AA guns, Airfix only supply two to go between the search-lights there should be 8, she sailed with 10 but off loaded two to the Altmark together with surplus and un required stores like inflammable paint and the large launches. This again is were Airfix fell down again, is the ships boats which a totally wrong. The boat rack next to the catapult is not there as is the crane on the port side next to the boats behind the tower bridge. The 20 mm cannons I fashioned from stretched sprue being 2.5 mm high and 4 mm long, had to make about a dozen as they kept feeding the carpet monster. (Academy supply 10 but show the bow and stern ones in place where-as these were the ones off loaded.) The aft bridge is again totally the wrong shape and the 37 mm mounts way too large ( They’re almost as big than the Academy 350 scale ones.) The main heavy lift cranes on either side can be improved by cutting off the thick rigging wire and replacing with stretched sprue. The final thing I did was to sand down the radar part to wafer thin cut the sides a touch and over-laid it very thin stretch sprue to give a better representation of the mattress radar. Was it all worth it? Actually no; as I got quite jaded towards the end of what was supposed to be a relaxing simple build, I was going to rob some PE railings from the HMS Belfast set but decided it wasn’t worth it, as the over thick masts etc. and thin barrels gave the model a distinct toy quality. I’ve tried to show her just before she opened fire on HMS Exeter at 18:15 on the 13 December 1939, the camouflage scheme being taken from the Profile #4 I’ve only used green but various internet sources state greens and browns were used but at 600 scale I decided to stick with green. I’ll not make a third Airfix Graf Spee even if the chance should arrive, I’ve now made two and been disappointed with both. Hopefully Airfix will not be re-releasing the kit, personally I feel the mould should be thrown into the sea to join her counterpart. Now a new tooling could be a totally different story but I doubt that’ll ever happen maybe in 2039 the centenary of the battle something could be forthcoming but I doubt I’ll be around to see it. I still think the Aurora and the Eagle Wall at 600 scale and 1200 scale respectively were the two best Graf Spee’s I’ve built. If anyone’s interested in the River Plate Battle I can recommend the “The Price Of Disobedience” the battle of the river plate reconsidered by Eric J Grove. This review has turned out to be longer than intended but hopefully someone finds it of interest. Photos below and all comments welcome. Maybe I can now get back to finishing the “E-Boat”. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom. /media/tinymce_upload/000e9de1bce1d32d4ddefa87947bf90b.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/80c067f96ea5986bdaf30cb2049fdf58.jpg Thesea-scape was one I'd made for HMS Ajax but never finished it. The Graf Spee is just resting on the sea-scape. /media/tinymce_upload/e25263a998e1742eea747f9e8b077ecf.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/5965f899a571cb1f4af981e5f280d021.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/3a7860166f924bc59f16a0c1e0d2478b.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/edd70cf962a353941ba914a529f8ba14.jpg Mid-ships see if you cvan spot those tiny 20 mm cannons. Also all those porhole were drilled out. Can't understand why it had so many portholes. Finally an airial shot. /media/tinymce_upload/6e6e754eae7f56dd4508ab514da5b872.jpg P.S. I’ve now stated the Academy 350 scale release the one with the plastic railings. ( The Premium Edition with the PE, brass barrels and wooden deck will hopefully follow at a later date.) Unfortunately I can’t plot the progress here but I’ll try on the ATF site if I can sort out how to do it. I did say I seem to have an affinity with the Graf Spee. JtP

Hi Paul. Thanks for the answer from you and pthers. I couldn't see a scale on the box but thought I'd seen them in our LMS. just hoped they were a 1/72 version I'd not seen before. John the Pom

Hi DH1 Welcome to the forum. If you check the aircraft forum T2B is doing the same Mossie you're thinking of building. maybe you can get some pointers from him, also my own posting of the mossie but you'll have to dig back a couple of years to find mine, unfortunalely the photos are no longer showing in my post Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Paul. Are those WW2 pilots 72 scale if so i'll have to try and source some in SA? Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Patrick. Really enjoyed reading your adventures with the Queen, At times I thought you'd gone a bit overboard, but the final result is really superb and I admire your deadication and tenasity. Well done on making the Queen into a beautiful model, you are an inspiration as to what can be achieved with some of these older kits. Looking forwards to your next project. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Jeff Welcome to the forum, glad to hear you,ve introduced your son to the joys of Airfix. That could br your Xmas gifts sorted for quite a few years to come; and maybe your Misses's; nudge-nudge-wink-wink. Looking forwards to seeing the results and reading about your's and your son's Airfix adventures. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Two Hasegawa 1/72 kits the Ki 43 Hayabusa & Ki 84 Hayate, from someone at the local IPMS was having a clear-out, also picked up a Fujima kit of the D4Y3 Judy. I've been looking for this aircraft for quite some time, Looks good in the box. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Heather. Hsppy New Year, Nice to see the finished Stuka It certainly muggs well looking just right. Sa you say the model is possibly one of the finest from Airfix and set the bar for future issues. You didn't say how you painted the canopy, but I guess you masked it some-how as itlooks nice and crisp. Here's hoping your warm weather continues and maybe we'll some others in your paint que. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Pool Welcome to the forum, and what a way to introduce yourself, the model looks stunning and I bet it looks better in the flesh, so-to-speak. Well done and certainly something different. Looking forward to reading and seeing more so keep them coming. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Heather. Looks like you're starting another of my interests with French WW2 aircraft. Unfortunately a bit thin on the ground and non-exsistent from Airfix, which is a crying shame, I think you're mainly stuck with Heller who re-issiued most of their back catalogue about two years back so should be available, together with Smer, which were the old Heller moulds. Good luck doing some of the camouflage schemes on the Morane Saulnier 406 & the Dewoitine D 520, If you can find the Portez 63.1 or 63.11 grab them as they're quite good kits and unlike most earlier Heller kits they both have a decent interior. Just a pity you can't post them here. Remember vwe do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Paws. I think you'll find that the B-1 was not fitted with sirens untill after 1939 and with the B-2 if they were used as dive bombers then the sirens were fitted. the italain and other useres oftern didn't have sirens fitted. The G'swere also sans sirens and dive breaks. As far as I can tell the D's even though used as dive bombers ofter had the sirens removed. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Heather I'm at present knee deep in Stukas, with the new tooling, the previous one and the one before that plus two mark G's, an old one from Frog, and the Academy one. So far only finished the Frog one in an Hungarian winter scheme, I see you've already sussed out the dive break thing that I was going to warn you about. I agree that the kit is a touch over engineered with those wing guns being seperate, but maybe Airfix is thinking of doing the D & G variants then those guns become 20mm cannons, ( The Academy kit has both in the kit but doesn't say which is which. ) That clear bit in the cockpit was the only thing that gave me some trouble fitting but it did fit eventually, and is the pilots aiming window when diving bombing. There were marks on the window, and when the target passed under the plane the pilot could see when to release the bombs, the dive pullout being automatic. I feel that the bladed sirens are for a ground Stuka, and the other ones for a flying one, although as you say nothing is mentioned in the instructions; possible oversight. I was very impressed with the crew figures especially with a posable arm and the choice of armament, the underwing drop tanks point to a future R version. ( I see Airfix has already issued it together with a B-2 version.) Personally I feel Airfix could have included an engine on the internal exhast parts and the cowling top top left removable as in their Me 109E kit. Interested to see how you get on with the marking for the camouflage. I've just finished the oldest Stuka and found it's a right sow's-ear especially around the nose area, now I have three more to go. I did try brush painting them but it looked really terrible so had to over spay the lot. I tried an expertiment with an old Fw 190 by doing the canopy framing with decal paper painted in the appropiate colour, and it works so that's the way I'm going with the Stukas. I did mask up the winter camouflage G but when I eventually removed the masking I found that glue on the paper tape had etched some parts of the canopy leaving it slightly clouded, ( My fault for leaving the canopy near a widow for a few weeks, the SA sun can be quite vicious if you're not careful.) and the thought of masking up four more canopies was why I tried the decal thing. Anyway looking forward to seeing how you get on and maybe I'll lean something. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Some more Vallejo colours, to many to mention here. Two bar clamps, My old wood-working one's were way too heavy. Four small pinch clamps. A fresh bottle of Revell glue. Really surprised at the cost of glue these days, used to be tanner (6d) or a quarter the price of an Airfix kit, the Revell glue cost the best part of a hundred Rand, that's about £4.75p at todays exchange rate. This fun is getting expensive, but it's still fun John the Pom

Hi Dad Paul B I've noticed the site is again able to up-load photos, but in the recommend secection about loading photos they recommend an 800 pixel limit. Most of my photos are trimmed to this limit and so-far no problems. I change the resolution of the final cropped image to 800 pixels in a photo editing program ( you can use Windows Fax Viewer Or there are many free on-line versions. ) then save as JPG with a mild compression which again reduces the file size by 30% or more. All my photos are of 150 Kb ( not MB) most being around 100 KB or less. I did post a few photos of the Manxman that when I just checked were in the 500 KB range and remember noticing them loading slower than usual. I now try to keep to that 800 pixel size. There are a few postings that take forever to load ( I've actually exited the internet several times, and restarted it to skip that posting.) and on checking them I've found that they are all in the double digit MB sizes and in the 3000 to 5000 pixel ranges. Maybe Airfix site techies have put a limit on the file size that can be up-loaded. If you still have problems maybe reducing the file size to the recommended limits might help. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Patrick. Now that's a useful tip. Actually I've accidentally done something simular in the past when photgraphig some sub-assemblies then noticing mistakes and being able to correct them or just improve the parts. Never thought of using the technique to purposely look for problems. Nice idea, I'll be trying it in the future. Your Queen Elizabeth looks stunning and I admire your tenacity, and inspiration to us all. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom PS. Got it in the right place. JtP

Whoops answered in the wrong posting John the Pom

Hi Mikkis. Another interesting bit of obscure historical knowledge. I do have a book on the Finnish air force but it mainly concerns itself with WW 2. Nice to see something of it's beginnings of theFinnish Air Force, it always amazes me what knowledge is out there, modelling can be very educational and much of modeller's research has helped many museums. A case in point was here in South Africa, the air force was given a Me 262 after the end of WW 2, and when they unpacked it found it was a two seater, and thinking it was a trainer displayed it as such. In the early 70’s a modeller from Durban was taking photographs and saw the frame or airframe numbers. He made some inquiries through the IPMS organisation and it turned out that the aircraft was a night fighter, one of the very few that were actually made as such at the factory, and not a conversion. The museum now has the only Me 262 night fighter in the world thanks to an eagle eyed modeller and the IPMS, they were also able to get the colouring correct as they had it in a very generic fighter paint scheme.. Thanks again for this snippet, and who says modelling isn't educational. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom