John Symmons

Hi Martin62 Looks like you're going to be a very busy guy. Would love to hear and see how you go with these builds. It's usually reccond that the late 60's and early 70's were the Golden Age of modelling, but with all these superb kits coming out from all the manufactures, including Airfix, it seems we're luckily having a New Golden Age. Good luck with your modelling and keep them coming. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Dschab. To be honest if I'd brought a kit with that much damage I'd promply return it to the seller for a refund, but if that's not possible it's probably cheaper to get another one just keep what you can for the spares box. If you brought the kit for the markings, just get another one and use the decals from your broken kit. I know it must suck when this kind of thing happens. In the past I've had kits that had broken, missing and/or miss-formed parts, but nothing as bad as you discribe, but I've usually found a way around it.. Whatever you deside good luck and would love to hear about the outcome and see the result. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Vicker's Valaint for 2020????, the stuff modelling wet dreams are made of. Remember we do this for fun John thee Pom

Hi Paul Nice one, and just goes to show what can be done with hand painting. Keep them coming. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi PMM Another fine build and it's nice to see so many Buccaneers and being done in different finishes to the Airfix suggestions. Would love to see the South Africian one you alluded too. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Lilgluewilldo Sound you were very lucky, your carpet montser must have been sleeping. Love to see your result when finished. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi The Rat. That's a great story and told in such a fashion that it could almost be true only your "What If" gaving it away. The model is superb and a great credit to your imagnation. Well done and keep them comming. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Whoops! My mistake. Thanks Ratch I stand corrected. Actually I was in two minds when i wrote it. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Mark 75. You have my sympathises we’ve all been down that road, but I must admit not three models in a row. I’ve just been fighting an old Hasagawa kit of the Nakajima G8N1 Rita bomber, just getting it to stand on it’s nose wheel required about 5 ounces of weight , and that old green plastic is now almost like metal it’s that hard. But the final straw was the dorsal airiel which I’d left for last as I knew it was very vulnerable, and I wanted to add the airiel wire. I managed to break it off 6 times as the rigging thread just wouldn’t stick even with epoxy. There was so much glue and paint built up that I finally had to take every thing back to the plastic and start from scratch but it still took two more tries. The result’s not perfect but almost invisible if you look hard, but I know it’s there but I can live with that. Perhaps my most down moment was building a 1/350 model of USN Missouri, I’d always wanted to build this model from when it first came out (about 1978-Ish), then in about 1990 I finally brought the beast, the biggest model in my collection. I started on a few sub assemblies but decided I wanted to do a proper job of it including Photo-etch and a water-line model. All new to me, but one thing I’d learnt apon returning to the hobby was that ships take a long time and a glass case really helps. Also on seeing the PE I realised I needed a few practice pieces, so everything went back into the box for about 20 years. I finally resurrected the kit in may or June 2014 and started the build in earnest with a home made glass case. Over the next year the model slowly took shape and was looking great, possibly my best effort ever. I was fast approaching the few final bits like the hull railings final touch-ups and adding the aircraft and some crew when on the evening of 17 July 2015 I was replacing the glass cover when I knock the mast head off the star-fish . (See Photo) !!!!!!Over a years work down the drain!!!!!! That model came soooooo close to being binned and being my last model EVER. (See Photo) /media/tinymce_upload/226f54c4d744ff4d9df3a9755ff91289.jpg Photo of accident inside the glass case where it stayed for two months. For two months the model just sat on the table taunting me until I finally managed to gather up the courage to see if I could rescue it. Well long story short the damage wasn’t as sever as it seemed at first glance. Although it did take some jiggling to untangle some of the rigging, I even managed to save the flag and eventually everything was firmly glued back into place and the model finally finished about a month later without any further mishaps. Although I was EXTRA cautious whenever I removed or replaced the glass covering. The model now sits on permanent display at a local hobby shop. /media/tinymce_upload/4f4dea1b4dce7f474404116cd0e7fe94.jpg Three months after the accident the final finished model. And yes those are crew figures on the after deck.Unfortunately I’m not allowed to mention the manufactures name on this forum just that the model is not an Airfix product. Moral if you need one is almost every model CAN be rescued, but just not then; give yourself time and come back to,it when YOU feel you’re ready for the challenge. Most broken parts can usually easily be mended just by gluing the back together and allowing the joint to really set hard (24 hours or more.) and UC legs can be strengthened with thin piano wire or brass rod after carefully drilling small holes into the broken parts, and fogged canopies can be polished using the range of Tamiya’s polishes and wooden stemmed cotton buds. Acrylic paints can easily be removed with meths without damaging the model. Enamel paints can also be removed ; maybe some on this forum can suggest what to use; I’ve heard oven cleaner works but never tried it. For your white lines try painting the areas white then mask out the white lines with thin strips of Tamiya making tape then paint the other colour on and when dry remove the tape to reveal nice neat straight white lines. Hope this helps and hopefully we’ll be seeing some of your results soon and remember there’s NO such thing a a bad model and that we’re our own worst critic. 9 times out of 10 nobody will even notice a mistake unless YOU point it out. Remember we do this for fun (Although I do sometimes wonder) John the Pom

Hi I like boat & planes Which I'll shorten to I-L-B&P. Fistly welcome to the forum and hope you'll enjoy the many topics aired here. there's a wealth of exprieance and information if you dig a bit. Airfix has over the years released all the major British battle-ships icluding the HMS Dreadnought, HMS Iron Duke (of WW1 fame) HMS Nelson HMS Warsprite in WW2 guise, just replace those wierd 15" gun barrels, and the HMS King George V. They've also done the HMS Repulse. If you scroll down this page you'll find my build of the KGV ansd several other Airfix ship including the HMS Belfast. Several of their earlier ship kits,while reasonable at the time, now really need quite a lot of work to bring them up to a resonable level by todays standard, here i'm thinking of the Graf Spee, Bismark, HMS Hood ,HMS Shefield, and the Sharnhorst. Basicall anything after about 1970 will make into a reasonable model straight out the box. the best aurguably being the KGV, Repulse, (often reckoned by online forums as Airfix's best.) HMS Belfast, (not for the faint-hearted) and the Prinz Eugen. Check down this page for my posting of the KGV and the Graf Spee. Airfix have also released three 1/72 boat kits, the Air-Sea rescue boat (Currently available) a Vosper MTB (Hopefully it will be re-released again soon) and an early German "E" or S-boat, (again hopefully to be re-released.) again I've done a posting on building the "E"? boat. and there are postings on the Air-Sea rescue and Vorsper boats. These three kits are a real joy to build and still hold there own even by todays standards. May-be something for you to think about. Even though most of the ships are no longer availabe, although Airfix seems to be re-releasing some in their "Vintage Classic" range most are still availabe second-hand at model shows and auction sites and the prices are not too exorbertant. Hope this helps. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Wow! Ratch; that's going back almost 70 years. Good luck. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Ratch That was quick but are you having power cuts as those photos are very dark??? 😆 Good to see you're continuinmg with your figures. Tried the link but Google says this web site is un-obtainable. So tried Tom's model works but all they have left is a few 600 scale railing sets, same as Atlantic but thanks for the help I'll keep looking. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Patrick I know that set exsists or exsisted as WEM is now off the market or their 600 scale PE set are, and Atlantic do not do the complete set for the Ark Royal. The best I could find is a generic railing & stair set, But thanks for the info. Maybe one will surface on an auction set. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom PS Your carrier looks great and I see you managed to get extra aircraft. JtP

/media/tinymce_upload/75625c52521d2097c3611fcbd514d9bb.jpg Another old Airfix kit I managed to score. The Airco DH 4, the special edition release of the one that downed the L70 Zepperlin. A very finely moulded kit with super slim struts and possibly the best renditioning or the machine guns I've see on any Airfix WW1 aircraft, almost up to Roden standards Pity the crew are not up to the standard of the Roland C-II & Hannover CL III kits. This is a kit I've been searching for for a long time and I'm very tempted to take a break from my old Japanese kits and give it a go. If I do I'll post it here. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Dark Earth I still have both the Airfix and Heller kits and they are not from the same mould. The Airfix kit is possibly the better of the two as it does contain a pilot and a passenger, also the undecarriage can be assembled compressed for a grounded aircraft or extended for a flying one. An option not found in any other model in 1/72. The Heller model has a slightly better interior, and can be finished as either the FI 156, or a post war MS 500, the main difference being the replacement of the tail skid with a tail wheel. There is also an Academy release of the Storch in 1/72 scale that has possibly the best interior and three finishing options, two WW2 German and one post war MS 500 / 502Criquet with French markings, complete with the radial engine option. So you take your choice and pays your money. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

Thanks to photobucket here's a few ofthe missing photos of the original posting that went missing. /media/tinymce_upload/f07832532060b276f181c21bf3a6c07b.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/0cba284e37b582c12d6fecabbf4f3b27.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/23edaedb6f7a613779b534150665e1cd.jpg A few views of the sub-assemblies. /media/tinymce_upload/1722c22e5887703375704ef963ca7cab.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/c0d388ff17ad89564d4da8994b01c4f1.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/9abaf7ea4a6abb5b7673f236d813b849.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/78b400264dbd68b4039aaf850dbd5793.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/f7f3c5322c1cbe36329f14a203ecd267.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/222413b3a1ad092dc96c9549c0bf9b8d.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/8caf5dbb0f6c85bc13cd902c0f1e116b.jpg A few views of the finished model. And below the 20p decal sheet of home made decals that were mentioned in the original posting some of which were used on this Fw 189. If Airfix do re-release this kit it's certainly one of their best efforts and well worth getting you'll not be dissappointed. /media/tinymce_upload/b3963c33422ac52f7069840bbeb83d80.jpg Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi PMM Wow! This was a surprise you must have dug deep to find this posting, and of couse I don't mind always good to see what other modellers have done with these old kits. Looks like you made a good representation of the FW 189 and great to see you did the one featured in the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, I have the complete set of the first issue so I know the profile you used. Actually those background models also look interesting. That's quite a collection you've aquired. Maybe I should re-post some of those missing photos fro the original posting. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Heather. Great seeing the Whirlwind again. I made the very first release, but didn't realise Airfix re-tooled it in 78. Very nice build and I sympathise about the paint issues I've also had that problem and that was with a Tamiya rattle can, I think mine was the plastic as it was a very old kit from the 60's and the Japanese used that very very hard styrene and polshed moulds back then, OK for enamels but not so good for acrylics. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Ratch Seeing as PMM has add his build, I'm adding a few of mine from the much earlier posting that's now minus the pics. Mine was done in a very grubby winter camo as these planes often used very muddy fields. One way the Germans used to test suitable landing sites was if you could drive a car or truck over the field at 50 mph it was deemed a suitable field for the Hs 123 to opperate from.The only thing I've added to the basic kit is the three stays just inside the cowling. /media/tinymce_upload/ca50e4d4b5968a271c21756501aed084.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/cf097065753e2cf1ba73e4070b2384a0.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/61a182b26db69e23332225a6310b4925.jpg Note the three stays inside the cowling. This really was quite a prominent feature of the aircraft and it's a pity Airfix didn't include it in the kit, but easily fixed with stretched sprue. /media/tinymce_upload/b9f7e82b54629858a79fd188a0449b56.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/9c9aef26bddf81e90f186e4b4bb30927.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/af71ae702ef4820fdb2e33ff00a4da0f.jpg Finally the grubby underside Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Whoops! Duplicate posting. JtP

Hi the Rat. A very nice and colourful model and showes what can easily be achieved with a little imagination. You say it's a what if but I wouldn't be so sure that an old Dauntless wasn't acually converted to such an aircraft. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Mayutan Firstly welcome to the forum and you made an enterence with a fine build of the Butcher Bird. I've heard that snake has given more than a few modelering dens a very blue atmosphere; not the easiest of decals to get right. My build of this kit was a starter release without the snake, and I agree with you the fit was generally very good, the only trouble I had was the upper deck and cowling and the underside of the cowling that's a part of the lower wing half but with some fetting and clever gluing it turned out OK. Isn' that modelling is about anyway? Thanks for sharing your build and hopefully we'll see plenty more of your results. So keep them comming. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi PMM Very nice bit of French, great to see something different. This looks like it could be a good candidate for a re-issue, for as you and Peter say there were no fit issues. Not often we see any French aircraft and even rarer for it to be a Naval one. Thanks for posting this interesting jet, hopefully you can post a few more of these older Airfix models that need to see the light of day. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Bantstudios. Making some modern jets and even some WW 2 aircraft with tri-cycle undercarriages can be a bit of a challenge. Probable the best to use is some old lead solder cut to fit and or smallish ball-bearings from your local bicycle shop, you'll need about 6 to 10 mm diameter ones. these are best secured with Blue-Tac or simular, you can even use old Plasticine. As Ratch says old lead tyre weights are another good substitute, but getting them to fit can be a challenge. If you save your old No 11 blades you’ll find that 12 to 14 weigh about 10 grams (almost ½ an ounce). I recently made a old Frog model of the Heinkel He 219 that was a serious tail sitter and had to cram over two ounces of solder into the fuselage and cowlings, and even so it only just sat on it’s nose wheel. I’m at present having the same problem with another old Frog (ex Hasagawa) model of the Nakajima G8N1 Rita bomber. Again with over two ounces (50 Grams) of weight into the nose and cowlings. Luckily with both these models I was able to tape the fuselage together, tack on the tail planes, plug in the wings with undercarriage legs plugged in to get some idea of the weight needed before joining the fuselage halves. Another WW 2 type that,s a serious tail sitter is the P 38 Lightning. The only WW 2 aircraft with tri-cycle undercarriage that’s not a tail sitter is the Hasagawa 1/72 Kyushu J7W1 Shinden although 1 gram weight is recommended, luckily this can be installed after building if you add the canards last. I’ve included a few photos of the He 219 and the G8N1 to give you some idea what a challenge this can be. The He 219 was weighted with solder fixed with Blue-Tac and the G8N1 also with solder plus some ball-bearings mainly fixed with acrylic dry wall tile cement, ( very useful stuff for making dioramas and sea-scapes, now I’ve found a new use for it. It’s also good for gluing tiles to walls.) Hope this helps and looking forward to seeing some of your results. /media/tinymce_upload/6a4692728e960c9726cd401781071d2c.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/a4cd09a29b796bbc303885c773db11dc.jpg Port and Starboard fuselage halves of He 219 with solder weights in fuselage anbd cowlings all fixed with Blue-Tac. /media/tinymce_upload/623e46695414abb0e2df3513cdc39c10.jpg G8N1 cowling with two lengths solder weight fixed with Blue-Tac /media/tinymce_upload/57cab036df83e586629c48d263a355c4.jpg G8N1 Fuselage halve clipped closed with weights hidden inside to check nothing fouled the closing. the tape marks the undercarriage pivot point. /media/tinymce_upload/489ffd7368916bbec807a18ea1e7286f.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/6b2befdcd4e9e7d9584855d587c884cc.jpg Looks a mess but all will be hidden once the fuselage halves are joined. Note the ball-bearing used in the very nose part. The white is the tile cement. /media/tinymce_upload/3b21d11573b2faad2d68e4b2118a91f3.jpg All gone: Hidden from view. Halves not glued just clipped together. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Hi Maurice Welcome to the forum. If you check back in this and the General forums you'll quickly find the subject of compressors has come up several tines. Check on the auction sites you can pick up a bargin. Also look to see that they have a pressure regulator and a water trap. Good luck and would love to see some of your results. Remember we do this for fun John the Pom