Pretty Mediocre Modeller

Yes, good save. Bet you won't make that mistake again!

Hi inkpen, The Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, London, used to have the centre section (cockpit, and wings out to the U/C legs) of a A6M5-52 on display, and this still had the legs and wheels attached. This is still in its very worn original paint. It was operated after the war by a British/ American unit called ATAIU/SEA (Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit - South East Asia). The legs are semi gloss black, which is easy to see, but I remember inspecting the inside of the doors and U/C bays and seeing traces of the Aotake colour. The centre section is now on display at Duxford I believe. Hope that helped.

Nice job Ratch! Looks like a great kit, I'm tempted. Airfix are certainly loving the Fleet Air Arm fans out there in 1/48 scale lately.

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1/72 scale Seafire I/II/III Spitfire PR.XI

I'd hazard a guess and say that was the Valom kit?

I like that idea. The only issues are that each figure would need to be individually moulded, whereas the previous sets have multiples of each figure, so this would make it more expensive. Then there's the licencing fee, and the fact that Airfix don't do new figure sets anymore, and that the series finished over forty years ago, so it's really only old fogies like us who would buy it.

Like the way that the decals follow one aircraft (XV666) throughout its service life, from 1970 to 2022. thought it strange that a Falklands scheme was not included, but then found out she didn't go down South, but was in Gibraltar for the war.

The HU.5 is a sort of Junglie, just without the specialised undercarriage. I'm sure someone will do a conversion set, or Airfix will do a reboxing with extra parts for the HU.4

I think the Swordfish II had metal covered lower wings as well, so they would need replacing. Might as well do extra parts for the RAF Mk III as well, with the radar housing in place of the torpedo, and faired over middle cockpit.

Looking forward to your Stirling Heather, I've build one a long time ago, it was a lot of work. Can I ask why you went with the very old Airfix moulding rather than the much more modern tooling from a certain Italian manufacturer? I can see that you are already improving it with plastic card inserts around the vastly overscale control hinges.

I was getting a bit jaded with my usual 1/72 aircraft building, andmy 1/24 Spitfire IX has stalled at the painting stage for a bit, so I decided to do something different to get back into the swing of things. I have a box of broken 1/72 and 1/76 armour kits leftover from my wargaming days in the 80s. Most of these were built by friends, to not a very good standard, but I thought I would give one a go at a restoration. To choose from are an Esci 25pdr gun and limber in 1/72, which was my first choice, but after sorting out the bits, I only had 2 of the 4 wheels needed, next was a Matchbox 1/76 LRDG truck, but again a wheel was missing, and finally 2 airfix 88mm guns, unfortunately no tractor. On checking the parts, I thought I have enough to build one whole gun, with a bit of scratch building for the tow hook and travel support for the barrel, as these were missing from both. I took the best gun barrel, gun carriage, chassis and arms, cleaned up the parts as best I could, including sanding down the weird camouflage pattern that had been put on, drilled out the location holes for the wheel bogies, that had been broken off, stole a missing circular mounting plate from the unused chassis, and made up two missing adjustment screws for the leveling foot plates. all these were painted in Panzer Grey, as it was the only German tank colour I had, and I wasn't going to buy any just for this, and reassembled. the moveable arms were glued in the down position, the gun carriage at a 45 degree angle from the travel position, but the barrel was left movable. The wheel bogies were then taken apart, most of the wheels being still moveable, and the two best bogies and 8 best wheels reassembled and again lightly sanded and painted in the grey, tyres being rubber black. these were then mounted to the chassis with new pins made from 1mm plastic rod. The new travel mount was again made from lengths of the 1mm rod, and the tow bar from plastic card, and other bits. For weathering there was a light dry brush in light grey around the edges, some steal dry brushing for moving parts, and dark earth weather powder around the wheels and bogies. Below are before and after pictures;

Hi Campbell, You need to click on the support button at the top of the page, then click on 'Returns and Repairs'. This forum is for members of the public to discuss airfix kits, none of us actually work for Airfix. Cheers

I believe that if you wish to build Faith, Hope or Charity, the Malta Sea Gladiators, they did not have a hook fitted, or the dinghy container, so you would just need to make the arrestor hook housing.

A very good youtube channel for all details of the Lee/Grant is the 'Australian Armour and Artillery Museum', 'Workshop Wednesdays' series. Over the last 6 months they have been restoring a rare welded seam Grant from a rusting farm hulk to a runner. No good for engine detail, as they have replaced the original engine with something a little more modern, as no original available, but the interior restorage has been very detailed. Over the last month they had 3 interesting videos where 3 other Grants were rescued from a farm collection, after the farmer/collector died, and his son wanted rid. These 3 were in various stages of being dismantled, but all the internal fittings had been saved. They were so abandoned that trees were growing through the engine bays. Other restorations have included a Tiger I and JagdPanther (both none runners), an ongoing Stug III G to running status, and an ex-war prize WWI German light artillery piece.

:When I finish a kit I don't generally keep parts I don't use You should keep those parts, you never know when they could come in handy for another build

Nicely done build

Hi Paul, unfortunately model manufacturers do not always put all the colour call outs you need down. As Patrick says, sometimes you need to do your own research or make a best guess. I would say the inside of your turret base would be matt black, or possibly cockpit green. I would go black.

I must say you are doing a very impressive job of superdetailing this old kit!

Very nice build. I'm sure that Academy will be pleased that you liked their kit that was put in an Airfix box.

I believe I remember seeing those articles in 'Scale Models International' magazine in the 80s. There was one to convert the Islander into a radar nosed 'Platypus' AEW aircraft I think?

Wow! Rigging on a 1/600 biplane, that's some good work there!

I believe that the 02/71 scheme is correct for the BoB period, before the Germans' went over to the greys scheme (74,75,76). An example of this can be seen in the IWM's crash scene diorama Bf109E at Duxford. This aircraft has been partially restored, but on one wing you can see the original paintwork. The aircraft is an E-3 built before the BoB and was originally in 70/71, with a low demarcation. The aircraft was then given a respray into the lighter 02/71 scheme, with a high demarcation. If you look closely at the light blue, you can see the dark green behind the stencils where they were masked off.

Hi John, I agree, it is difficult, but not impossible, to get anything really that is not British, American or German from WWII. If it's Russian, Japanese, French or Italian it can take some searching to get what you want. Anyway, the Gekko is the old Fujimi kit from the 90's reboxed with new decals from Hobby 2000. It's a nice kit with recessed panel lines, but not much cockpit. Cost wasn't too bad.

Used the double points offer over the Easter Weekend to get these.