John Symmons

Hi Heather That wimpy looks interesting. The Portez 63:1 is a brilliant kit i made it years ago, arguably Heller/Azur best kit. Maybe looks a bit Me110-ish but personally i think it has fare better lines. The interior is probably Heller's best especially WW2 aircraft, it includes radios even oxygen bottles, pity Heller didn't see fit to upgrade some of their other models to a similar standard, pity there's no crew. Be careful with the undercarriage it's a bit complicated and over engineered, the underneath guns are very fragile, I broke mine off three times while doing the assembly, also the propeller blades are also very fragile. With a bit of care the engines are a work of art, or they were back in the 60's. I recently made the Heller Portez 63:II, and what a joy to build. I was very tempted to try the red and yellow cowlings but chickened out. It made quite a stir when I took it to our local I.P.M.S. meeting. I often wondered how it would have faired it the Germans had put a couple of DB 601 on it would it have been better than the 110? Nice to see the kit is still around if one turns up in Cape Town i could be very very tempted, enjoy the build and have fun. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Dusty Dave Wow! you certainly seemed to have made a silk purse from maybe not a sow's ear but a good piece of leather. I'm always surprised at just how good some of these older kits turn out with a few modern additions and modern treatment. Well done and hope to see more in the not to distant future. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

The standard figures are fairly good but it would be an idea if, now and again, we could have at least one new kit that had a really well detailed crew. And how about some ground crew as well. Remember we do this for fun. John the Pom

Thanks Ratch. I did do a posting on these model and the build some time ago but when last checked it was still sans photos Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Smoover Here's my first attempt at using photo-etch also my first attempt at water, or in this case a sea-scape. I always felt that water-line ship models look better as water-line as that's the way we usually see them. While Airfix 600 scale kits where great especially the later ones, some of the earlier ones where a bit iffy. So here's my effort with the suburb HMS Manxman together with the some-what plain HMS Campbelltown plus the WEM photo-etch set in a fictitious meeting some were the the Bay of Biscay. I must admit the P-E really brings these models up to far more acceptable standard. Good luck with the rigging etc. and it would be great to see the finished model. keep them coming & remember we do this for fun. John the Pom

Hi Rogus McBogus If you can get the free promotional Vallego colour chart there's a conversion chart included in the text. the newer Vallego chart also includes the Vallego Modelair colours. I use this chart as a starting point when kits give Humbrol colours then I convert them to a Vallego equivalent. Remember the Swordfish had a very hard long life in some very harsh conditions, and had both metal and canvas coverings, therefore the paint weathered considerably especially on any canvas parts. So I wouldn't be too pedantic about getting the colour to th n'th shade. Hope this helps and looking forward to seeing some of your results. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Hi Nick Nice work I particularly like the Stork. Is it the old Airfix kit, the only one that's molded with the to position undercarriage. I had two of those plus the Heller and Academy ones but dished them when i had a clean-out last year. I have two Airfix Stud III and the WW1 male tank together with an ACE kit of a 19118 155 cm cannon all waiting for priming. Hopefully I'll get around to them soon. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Nick. Welcome to the forum. You'll find many here in the same boat as you, returning modelers who've somehow built up quite a sizeable stash of unmade models. I'd recommend that you use some of those old kits to practice using some of the new paints and techniques you see on this forum and builds on you-tube. One strange thing is, especially with returning modelers, even though you start with your stash hoping it'll get smaller, you'll find that a few months down the line you stash has inexplicably grown, as if those old kits have been breeding while you're not looking. Seriously though, I've often thought the golden age was back in the 60's and 70's, but looking what's on the market these day it's amazing what's available and just the shear volume of subjects available. Not to mention all the new materials that are being made. So, again welcome back to the wonderful, frustrating, and confusing world of plastic modelling. Remember there's no such thing as a stupid question we've all asked them, and this forum is just the place to ask. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Hi Gazdadude. Firstly welcome to the forum Humbrol enamel tin-lets of paint could last almost indefinitely if properly sealed. Personally i have a tin of Humbrol silver paint from the late 50'd or early 60's and it's still usable with little stirring. The Matt paints could have settled out but with the addition of a little white spirit can be woken up with a good stir. I now rarely use enamels as I've gone over to Acrylics, much easier to use and clean. A few years ago when I decided to get back into modelling I dug out all my old Humbrol enamels, most of them being still useable including some of the Authentic colours, only the paints that were poorly sealed or were over half used were useless. You might need to make a paint stirrer out of some wire and mount it into a battery drill to help you mix the paint again, or buy a dedicated mini paint stirrer from your local hobby shop. Hope this helps and looking forwards to seeing some of your results o this forum. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom. P.S. A quick note to Airfix or Hornby, please could you change your spell checker to an English version, and not use the American version, colour, is spelt colour and not color, and it might be useful to add Your Trade names like Humbrol to the dictionary. JtP

Hi KiwiKev. If you check back in the ships forum you'll find my posting on the Airfix KG V you'll find it three pages back. Unfortunately the picture are not shown as yet, But you might find the text interesting and hopefully informative. I reckon its one of Airfix's best ship models probably the most time consuming bit is painting the hull camouflaged. Hopefully we'll see some photos in the near future. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Hi Ratch. I'd just like to add something to your post about posting photos. In the guide lines of the old forum there was quite a bit about posting pictures, and one thing was please make photos about 800 pixels on the longest side. I'd like to add please make them JPG's as I see quite a few being posted as PNG's. Just converting 20mg PNG file to a JPG will bring it down to about 2 MG. Also if you crop off all the unused back-ground you could easily save another half MG plus. An example of this is the photo of the Airfix Bismark photo being 19.6 MG and in the PNG format. Changing that to 125dpi resolution and cropping out most of the grey background, then resizing to 800 pixels, then saving as a JPG the file size came down to 69.8KB. You'll find that your photos will upload much quicker, (Hopefully without the dreaded time-out.) and viewers will be able to download the photos without having to make a cup of tea while waiting for them to download. There a quite a few free photo apps you can down load, and a quick Google search will bring up quite a few. I use GIMP as this gives me the most flexibility, and it's free, although if you're not used to photo editing apps it can be a bit of a leaning curve. (I used to use Corel but the new release is way to expensive for me now.) Another excellent one is the new Serif Affinity photo editor at about 50 quid, and it's British. The better apps also allow you to correct a myriad of photo problems like lighting or exposure problems so you can post some really stunning photos. Ok end of rant and hopefully the PNG will go away. I'll finish with the Bismark photo at 800 pixels at 125 res and in JPG. (Original photo posted by Ratch) Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi ZeroOneman. That's a very fine build and I agree with Dominic, The photo is superb. Did you use your railway lay-out for the back-drop? (yes I did go to your site and quickly viewed your work. The 1/48 Hurricane should also be shown on this forum. Another superb build.) The only problem I have is your photo is way too big for the forum as it took ages to down load. I've taken the liberty of down loading it and changing it to a JPG at 124 res and 800 pixels as recommended by the forum, plus a very slight crop. The pic is now 94.4 KB as compared to 14.3 Meg in your original posting. ( Your photo reposted as a JPG below,) The resizing was done in GIMP a free to down load photo editor. Hope you'll forgive me, it seem to be a common problem these days with photos being posted as PNG, could be that's the default setting on camera phones. Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing the finished Tiger moth. Remember we do this for fun. John the Pom

So far so good from my angle. No trouble here. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

"UK supplier: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/tamiya-limonene-cement-extra-thin-40ml.html?queryID=6afb7b72842e5a2d653c6aad2ed0fccb&objectID=55317&indexName=hbk_live_magento_en_us_products." In a recent PM models show this problem came up and they said that they couldn't get it, as the Tamiya agent wasn't allowed to import it. And as the bottle has a label stating it's inflammable you might have trouble Air Mailing into the UK from abroad. So if you do see it in your LMS grab a bottle. you might find it useful. Just remember it doesn't dry as rapidly as Extra Thin. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Errrrrr??? ----- What's happened to the editing feature that allowed the post a final edit if needed as soon as the post was posted. That feature has save me a lot embarrassment in the past. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

I concur with Ironsides that many images are WAY too big. The Airfix site does say that images should be 800 pixels on the longest side (Usually the width.) . I have posted pictures that have been 850 or even 900 pixels and have never had a problem. Most of my pics are about 187 to 200 KB and up load very quickly and show on the post almost instantly. I used to use Coral Photo Paint to edit my pics but the new version is going for stupid prices, I've now down loaded GIMP (Also a free to down load and use. Plenty of tutorials on U-Tube.) which personally I preferer over windows paint, although I'm also looking at Affinity photo editing app. It's British and very good rivaling the likes of Photo-Shop and Coral. Before posting photos I try to improve the lighting, colour, and general quality of the picture; crop to the bits I want, Change the resolution to about 125 +/-, then set the size to 800 pixels and save as a JPEG usually at the default setting. Hope this helps and here's to seeing quicker down loading of all the wonderful models you all make. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom PS. Why is Airfix using an American spell checker? Colour is not spelt 'color' in the "English" language. Come on Airfix how's about some patriotism. JtP

I believe Limonene cement isn't available in the UK or the Tamiya version isn't same as the Tamiya putty. Something to do with labeling. As I mentioned above most solvent in glues are OK in the kind of concentrations most modelers are going to use them, the only problem comes with spraying paints and then its mainly with any fly spray, although the solvents in lacquers can be obnoxious and they smell a lot so ventilation is strongly recommended. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Hi Oliver. I see Health & Safety has reared its interfering ugly head again. I've been modelling for over 60 years and been working for almost 50 years in the printing industry, and consequently come into contact with almost every solvent there is; some being very toxic; sometimes in quite high concentrations, like working on the printing surfaces on a gravure printing machine, and I've never worn a mask. So far it's not affected me in any way;;; Ha-Ha-Haaa. He-He-Heee. Hooo-Hooo. Starts typing babble. --- Seriously though all solvents can be dangerous if used excessively, including Ethyl Alcohol, ask any drunk. But the amount of solvent you’re going to come into contact with using solvent based styrene glues is miniscule especially in a ventilated room. Most glues use an organic compound solvent something like Xylene which you can by a most hardware stores, (Well in South Africa you can.) and or some form of Key-tone solvent like Acetone that women use to remove nail varnish. Just use common sense when using any chemical, just don’t drink or taste it, it’s not very nice. Trust me, I’ve tried, accidently of course. The way all styrene glues work is by chemically gently melting the styrene surfaces and welding the two surfaces together when the glue dries. The two types of styrene glues are the tube cement type and the liquid type. The tube type was the only one available back in the 50’s & 60’s and while it’s still available very few modellers use it as it can soon become very messy and squashes out of tight-fitting joints on modern tooled kits. Most modellers now use the liquid type as its easier to use, much cleaner as you use less dries quicker, and better for small parts by applying it with a cocktail stick. Two I can recommend are the Revell Contacta and the Airfix Liquid Poly, both come with a fine needle like spout so you have good control when using it. The other type of liquid glue is the pure solvent type, the best known probably being the Tanya Extra Thin. This is very runny but comes with a built-in brush. Just hold the two pars together and touch the brush at one part of the join and the glue will run down the join with capillary action. Just be aware it does dry very quickly so you have to be reasonably quick and don’t leave the bottle open or it’ll evaporate. You can use one of the Super Glues to make model kits but this has its own problems, some people are allergic to the stuff and once it’s set, which it does very quickly, its almost impossible to take apart if you’ve made a mistake. This is mainly used or gluing photo etch parts, resin or white metal, and rigging on biplanes and ships. The only water-based glue you could use is wood glue or PVA. This is totally safe, and often used in cluing clear parts like canopies and windows as it won’t fog the clear part. The solvent in styrene glues can react with clear parts while it’s setting and fog them. PVA glues can be used to glue styrene plastic but they’ll need to be held firmly in place while the glue sets and to be honest you might find the model falling to bits half way through the build, and painting could be a problem. Not really recommended, although as I’ve said it’s good for clear parts as it dries transparent and doesn’t fog the canopies, it’s also used for gluing photo etch and rigging. You mention using a mask. This isn’t really necessary except if you’re using spray paint like the Tanya rattle cans or an airbrush, (See the Florrymodels site. He’s done several tutorials on spraying.) but you should use the mask with the filter for solvents and gasses. This is definitely recommended if using enamel or lacquer paints as these can be very pungent, and have plenty of ventilation, even use a fan blowing out of the window if possible. If using spray cans use out-side on a not too windy day and always stand up-wind of what you’re spraying. That’s about it and I hope you found it helpful. Good luck and hope to see some of your result in the near future. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Hi Ratch. Again, another beautiful clean build from you. I particularly like the faded winter camo. That rearward view it could almost be mistaken for a Lagg 1. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Thanks Jopress, I thought that might be the case, I do have a vague memory of that; Err: anniversary issue; wasn't it molded in the original blue plastic? You say still available on evil-bay, probably for silly money. i wasn't that happy with the original kit way back then, so, I'll give that a big miss to save further disappointment. Remember we do this for fun. John the Pom.

Hi Tomek 22. Interesting spitfire with an unusual camo. Seems you're having some fun which is what the hobby is all about, much cudos to you. That BT-K codes you've used, weren't those the codes used on the "original" Arifix spitfire way back in 1956-ish. If they're the same old 1950's decals how on earth did you ever get them to work? What-ever the answer well done and keep them coming. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Hi Colin. Welcome to the forum, and back to the wonderful, frustrating world of Airfix plastic modelling. Don't give up hope with your son, I'm sure if you make some other models and explain their historic value and or stories he'll begin to show interest in following his dad. Nice job on the spitfire especially after 45 years. The spinning prop brings back memories of the old 96 scale Eagle-Wall models of the late 50's, that had a clear plastic disc to show a spinning prop. I'm surprised that other manufactures haven't also included it in their kits, what with all the other "extras" or optional parts, now included in most kits it shouldn't cost much to include a clear plastic disc for an in-flight display. Looking forward to seeing more of your builds and possibly your sons first build. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

What happened to the 2020 Pandemic Special? Hopefully it's not gone for good. I've looked back through the forum for about 4 pages but no sign of it. Please can we have it back. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Perhaps this should be moved to the pandemic special 2021 (II) forum. Nice build though, and like the diorama setting. Remember we do this for fum John the Pom

Hi B206B3. At 300 KB your pics are very big. In the up-load pics section they ask you to keep the picsal count along the longest side to 800 picsals.. The Hawkeye above is 1.05 MB and my pics of the Ambulance and Vomag at the top of this page, are about 100 to 125 KB range and are in the JPEG format. Hope this helps. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom