Pretty Mediocre Modeller

My latest aquisition from a well know auction site, to fill another gap in my WWII Bomber Command collection. Still waiting for a decent Fairey battle and any Avro Manchester My built 1/72 Bomber Command collection consists of the following at the moment; Fairey Battle BI, Airfix (very) old tool Bristol Blenheim IV, Airfix new tool North American Mitchell II, Airfix new tool HP Hampden B.I, Airfix old tool Armstrong Whitworth Whitley B.V, Airfix new tool Vickers Wellington B.1, Trumpeter newish tool Vickers Wellington B.X, Matchbox old tool Short Stirling B.I, Airfix old tool HP Halifax B.I, Matchbox old tool Avro Lancaster B.I (late), Revell newest tool Avro Lancaster B.II, Airfix new tool Avro Lancaster B.III (Special), Dambusters, Airfix old tool Boeing Fortress B.III, Airfix new tool DH Mosquito B.IV, Hasegawa DH Mosquito B.XVI, Airfix new tool Other aircraft I would like to fill some remaining gaps are a Douglas Boston, new tool Battle, Avro Manchester, Halifax B.III, and Liberator (100 Group), some of which are available some not.

Have you tried Airfix spares, you may have to pay for the parts if they are in stock, but better than buying a whole new kit?

I've built this kit a couple of times, once with the nose open. You do not need to put any weight in the nose as the centre of gravity is forward of the main wheels.

AEC Matador Tanker

Bedford QL

I built this set some years ago, but thought I'd share some photos as it's on the shelf at the moment. From what I remember I didn't have any issues putting the Bedford QL and AEC tanker together, the biggest issue was sanding down the join line down the centre of the actual tanks. They were painted following the guide, and weathered with Humbrol weathering powder. The wheels look a little under scale to my eye, and the scheme on the QL is post war, but good little kits and good set dressing for my aircraft models. In the first photo I tried to recreate the box illustration. These accessory sets must be worth a reissue in the vintage classics range.

When I was a teenager and into wargaming with painted Airfix figures, we used to store our figures in a small box between two layers of cotton wool, that always worked well.

The Tempest next to its older brother, the Hurricane.

After the decals, and a panel line wash, the undercarriage was added. This is quite complex, but well detailed, and sturdy when completed. The wheels are moulded with flat spots. Then on went the rod aerials and pitot, then a sprayed coat of matt varnish. Next the prop and canopy went on, and construction was complete. To finish things off some weathering powders were used for gun and exhaust smoke, and dirt around the wheels, and finally the green and red navigation lights were painted onto the wingtips. Overall a good, well fitting and well engineered kit that offered not issues, and was an enjoyable build. When the boxing for the series 2 aircraft comes out, I may just get another!

Ken, You're thinking of RMS Queen Mary, which accidentally rammed and sunk her escort HMS Curacoa in 1942.

Plenty of stencils included to make it interesting!

A coat of gloss varnish applied, then decals added, I've gone for the plainer pre D-Day squadron machine option. For the most part decals went on fine with no silvering, as expected from Cartograph. Did have two issues though, 1, the shade of Sky used for the code letters and tail band looks a bit to blue to me, and 2, the yellow wing leading edge stripes. I did get these on, but they just didn't look right, being to wide at the tip. In the end I took them off again, masked up and hand painted them. All was sealed with another coat of Future varnish, now some washes and weathering a coat of matt and adding the small parts.

Painting was done by hand using Vallejo Model Air Paints. All the smaller parts such as undercarriage and exhausts were done at the same time. Now ready for decaling.

The rest of the airframe was constructed without any issues, everything went together well, and the only filler needed was a spot on the end of the chin intake. Clean up of seam lines was quick with some wet and dry of various grades. The only negative I have is that the wing trailing edges are on the thick side, and could do with thinning down. One thing I did like was the cockpit combing insert as a separate piece, allowing detailed canopy rails.

Thanks for the message Rod, I see it's been answered already! Anyway, back to the build. while waiting for paint to dry and glue to set, I was working on the prop. Started by painting the tips white undercoat then yellow, masked these off and painted the rest of the blade black, as was the spinner back plate, and the spinner itself was painted Sky Type S. All was assembled with no issues, matt varnished, and put to one side for later use.

The internals of the Tempest are made up of various sub assemblies, for the radiator, seat and armour, instrument panel and tail wheel bay. The painting instructions for most of these is pretty good, apart from the radiator, which has no colour call outs at all. I gave it a base coat of black, from and back, dry brushed in dark aluminium to pick out the details, then painted the carburettor intake in aluminium. The fuselage halves have representation of the structure moulded in, and some semblance of sidewall detail. You can see that I have also assembled the wings here. They are one piece top and bottom, with the centre of the top wing also carrying the control column and foot pedals. These pedals are tiny, but still have callouts for 3 colours! The top and bottom halves of the wings fit together nicely, trapping wheel well wall pieces and the cannon barrels inside. The fit was fine, the only downside being quite thick trailing edges. Something easily fixed with a couple of swipes of wet and dry paper. Interior was painted following Airfix's instructions, the only addition being Tamiya tape belts painted Humbrol cream. The surfaces then received a light grey drybrush to add some weathering.

Hi Peebeep, I didn't realise that you had already done a review of this kit, wasn't trying to step on your toes, hope you don't mind if I carry on with posting my build. Here's shots of the sprues and the decals, by Cartograph of course.

For my latest build I thought I'd do the new Tempest from Airfix, as I've been concentrating a bit on post war stuff of late. The parts seem moulded well, with fine engraved panel lines, and good detail. There area some unused parts, that will be appropriate for a later series Mk. V, such as drop tanks, different main wheels (which even have the Dunlop logo moulded on) and a filter to go into the middle of the air intake. I should say that the drop tanks are moulded in clear plastic, the real thing had a clear panel in it to view the contents, so the tank can be painted, leaving the panel clear. Options to use in the kit include choice of spinners, either pointed or blunt, and wheels up or down. The main fuselage parts don't have pins and holes, but rather pins on both sides that interlock. The instructions are in Airfix's usual style.

Hi Rod, If you want a 1/72 Spitfire XII there is/was an injection kit available from Xtrakit.

Cheers DoubleD, it's not that great close up, but good enough to go on the shelf! Not sure I got the colours right, they dried darker than they looked in the tin.

My Pucara is now completed. decals came from a Xtradecal sheet, ordinance was from a Hasegawa weapons set (rocket pods), and leftovers from a HobbyBoss A-7 Corsair II build (bombs and triple ejector rack). The kit took a bit more work than the average Airfix kit, being short run, but built up okay in the end. The biggest issue was the that did not fit well at all. A lot of filler was used to blend it in, but it still isn't a perfect fit. Having said all that I did enjoy the build, and it is my tribute to the conflict that happened 40 years ago!