Peter s

Very nice! Are those empty pylons? If so looks good. I always load mine to max takeoff weight!

Keep us posted. Funnily enough I have the same aftermarket set and decided to stick with the kit too. I had a burst of Vietnam over Xmas then stalled. I have this build 95% complete next to a 95% complete version of Robin Olds F4. Hopefully you'll encourage me to finish it!

/media/tinymce_upload/8bb026bf59161d9e9f76f40370277136.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/a4fee12ef11b68e81a9f3119e290db30.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/58a3e22d519aa38d1e0a71a63819f836.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/505c730a097a9edef4ee1b853fdbcfd0.JPG Hopefully the mods let me post these. The two airfix with the rest of the Italian airforce. The F42 Biplane is a matchbox kit as old as me. Still a great build. It would be high on my request list for a new tool as it would make a lovely dogfight double with a Gladiator. The Macci 200 is by R------- . If anyone is curious its paint scheme was the same as the Airfix but reversed. A base of Olive then sand-gelb and red-brown applied with a kaput old brush.

/media/tinymce_upload/1d2621794b74fac3070fc88c9d3400da.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/9da12695390eab95022f6162bcf08524.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/cb783da3dd86e2e514a3e8241c449490.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/d446f7c1c3dddbd2661c41908d198c05.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/45d52d491ead451a18d15810e3a7933c.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/706ef85e4116eddaa4400dddd9f95014.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/86aba1e0b9d74067a01d43b872c90e3a.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/82b5dda6af31a4a62e3af19119353037.JPG The final pics.... I messed around with a few filters to try to recreate the early colour film effect you see in old films/Signal magazine on a few of these shots.

Hopefully I can remember what I actually did! Bad phone pics I'm afraid.... /media/tinymce_upload/5772749239638361db5c731ec83f3bd4.jpg Both kits built straight out of the box. One thing I didn't fully appreciate is that the panel on either side of the fuselage is a gun port. There's a small MG which looks a bit like a Lewis gun included but its less than clear where it (can) go. /media/tinymce_upload/338e4504617c42269dedb0bb7728a5ba.jpg Less than clear but both planes have white fuselage bands and white (or yellow in the case of the G50) cowlings. I primed the whole plane (s) white then masked off. /media/tinymce_upload/d5d08a8f7ca1e58c903145ec2df71deb.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/9bff827427a5653160bc419bc929c39e.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/6fb5e4954fb9f0137b497d8ea59937a6.jpg I wasn't going to kill myself sourcing special Italian colour matches so basically used WW2 German N.African shades. Both planes sprayed with "Sand-Gelb" which is quite a brown-sand. I free handed olive green splots on the G50 and olive and red-brown on the SM79. The red-brown doesn't come across well in the pics but are more obvious "in the flesh". All paints used are Model Colour BTW /media/tinymce_upload/d2e30a1a6d7616a6f1779c79ec19e598.jpg Both planes given a wash with burnt umber oil paint in thinners as a light wash/filter/bit of back-to-rear streaking. /media/tinymce_upload/c275817b60558222f66cdf5929b722b1.jpg Watch the box art.... the engine cowlings are not especially obvious. What could be the usual "antique bronze" strip on a radial is actually red paint. The props and engines are a very tricky white-red-white-red-white banding. I used 18mm wall planner stickers to mask the front of the cowlings and Tamiya flexible tape. /media/tinymce_upload/90828886ba3c86e8fbb3b63f9ecd6656.jpg Masks off and they more or less worked. A tiny brush touch up of the red needed. Decals applied. Incredibly the decals on the ancient G50 were still good to use. /media/tinymce_upload/f3ee675e7b071acf57d439ddfa5aeb30.jpg After this just the usual minor extra bits (like the rear gun) and tyres to paint and a touch more weathering. I added the torpedoes at a late stage and found them an awkward fit. One is good, one seems to have slightly twisted while the glue set but this is only obvious front on.

Chris Mawson: Remember Airfix is a brand of Hornby in the same way Mini is now 100% BMW. As far as the kits go they've never been better. I buy a lot of old ones on eBay and a lot of the Palitoy and Humbrol vintage kits are garbage. Thats Airfix's primary business and they make plastic model kits very well indeed. They CHOOSE which ones to model next very well indeed too. I think the problem with the website is that its run by 1 man and a dog and demand for the club membership has been vastly more than they anticipated. It literally sold out in hours. God knows what the backlog is. I've given up on getting "the membership card" but I don't need it so don't care. Its been explained to me that the bigger onlines retailers get first dibs on manufacturing runs so for some strange reason Airfix themselves aren't the primary retailer of Airfix kits.

Thanks! Thats a few years ago now. I ended up getting very sick of modelling (dealing with customers and making models to their spec in a few weeks turned into a second job... Fedex to the US for these could be over £100 and the customs forms were a pain too). I literally didn't model for two years then went back to where I started as a kid - 1/72 planes. Turning a hobby into a business can bite you back. It did generate a decent income for a time though. I've kept the website going because its a good collection of pics. 1/16 is so big I could never really keep much that I built.

Weird.... I got the following pretty much immediately after I signed up: Welcome to the Airfix Club Thank you for signing up to the Airfix Club. Your membership number is: XXXXXXXXXX Your welcome pack will be delivered within 28 days. All Club members now have access to the Club VIP Area by clicking here To take advantage of Club benefits, such as the Club exclusive products, please make sure you are logged in when you visit the website. We hope that you enjoy the Club, and look forward to seeing you soon at Airfix. Kind regards, The Airfix Club Team

According to Wiki: In 1964 a tripartite squadron, comprising members of the British, American and German armed forces, was formed at West Raynham to evaluate the Hawker P.1127 Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) strike fighter aircraft.[6] I think this model is a "what if the Germans had continued with the program and bought GR1s". The P1127 is quite different from a GR1.

Everyone has pretty much answered but : I use Revel poly-cement with a needle applicator for polystyrene (Humbrol do a similar needle applicator) For resin superglue GEL usually Loctite. Cheap watery superglue gets everywhere. For heavy resin (I fixed a resin engine to an Me 262 at the weekend) Araldite instant (the white and yellow syringes) It sets in a few mins but is more messy than superglue. Kristal Klear for clear parts. Keep superglue a million miles away from your clear bits. Its amazing how long the vapour lingers and its the vapour kills clear parts.

I've bought it do an A (no turret) but thanks for the heads up. I think the tanks are unpainted... ie bare aluminium. I've seen silver tanks on black "twin mustangs" so am 99.9% confident on this.

The Blenheim IV /F is a great kit for this : Should you wish you can build it as a bomber version or the fighter. The bomb bay is fairly easy to work out without the instructions. I personally think two boxes: one a fighter, one a bomber, when the fighter has all the bits for both is utterly bonkers...... if they tossed in the glass for the Mk1 you could do four versions from one boxing. You can often work out what release is planned next with the first kit. Some options never seem to make it to production though. The beaufighter X has holes drilled for wing bomb racks and two superchargers so clearly a VI was on the cards but never made it (yet....)

I still haven't had the card but the membership number should be on the first email you got when you joined.

If you think back the sordid Lockheed corruption around Gemany's purchase of the Starfighter (rather than Lightnings) and our own Govt telling the Germans they really didn't want Buccaneers there's a potential for a whole fleet of Brit-Built Luftwaffe. Nice model and great idea!

Funnily enough about a month ago I got two 1/72 Hurricanes in this huge wine coloured box which was so good I've saved it for re-use. It was ten times tougher and nicer than the usual Hornby (which is normally very good don't get me wrong). On Tues I got a "free" Me262 (club tokens) and that also came in a rather ragged small box with no packaging and with two random elastic bands around the kit. No damage and even the kit box is in perfect condition. I put that down to it being a club token order not a "proper" one but it sounds like like they've got a slacker in the packing dept this week or they're running low on boxes....

I used to do a lot of 1/16 resin figures and £38 for a good original was about the going rate 10 years ago (Verlinden's were about half that). Even a "small" diorama in that scale is A4-A3 sized base and the cost can get crazy very quickly. Given the 403 error thing I can't share links but if you google "precision-panzer" you'll find my old website. Figures in that scale can be airbrushed quite well. I couldn't afford to keep what I modelled and sold most of the large scale stuff to keep fresh kits coming. A lot of the projects were sold through a Hong Kong intermediatry (who probably took the majority of the cash) and used in some of those low rent "Giant Killer Nazi Super tanks" things on the "history" channel (I use the term history lightly). At the time it was cheaper to take a model and add CGI than to CGI the entire thing so there was a lot of demand for the models as props. If you ever see a Tiger 1 with the 2nd SS rune upside down that was one of mine!

Seconded. Without the ability to post pictures (which ARE moderated and can take quite a while to be moderated) the main function of the site is crippled. I've had a 4* review awaiting moderation for exactly a month now & some product pics that were uploaded about the same time also not approved so it seems the powers that be are simply not attending to web traffic much.

Sad but sadly also predictable... Frankly I'm writing this year off, trying not to plan so much as a haircut in advance and just doing what I can on a day to day basis. If you book anything odds are you'll end up disapointed and out of pocket. We can't afford a second lockdown so large gatherings simply aren't going to be allowed any time soon. Fingers crossed it blows over soon and 2021 is a bit more normal.

Thanks for the tip Peter. Postage is the killer to Australia, but 3 quid is a bargain. Will watch with interest. I might take the plunge. No problem. I thought £20 (£15 plus £5 postage) within the UK was a bit steep for a small kit but for rare kits I suppose its worth what someone will pay.

Given the kit was a grey/green and I did earth/green it was probably the original decal if correct for 42 onwards. I didn't notice. Most of my spares are from Spitfires so aren't square.

There's some Airfix 504s on eBay now. One with a £15 buy it now another with 1 bid at £3 (both UK sellers). I made a couple of Airfix WW1 planes that were sold in the new red box (Camel and Albatross V) both were at least as good as the Revell equivalent but were just too small for me to do really well. Both ended up mostly brush painted.

For my 1/72 ground vehicles I'm personally happy with near enough.... not least because I believe in scale colour effect so model small scale in slightly lighter than "real" shades anyway. The larger the scale the more I worry. When I used to do serious large scale modelling for paying customers I was much more careful about it. I may not have been right 100% of the time but I could at least justify the choice. I've got some great literature on exact colour schemes. - The warpaint series by D Taylor used to be my bible when I had a weird scheme I had to get right. Those can be found quite easily on Amazon if anyone wants some heavy duty reading. (Amusingly a common name used for people with Richard on their birth certificates starting with D and ending with K needs moderated 🤐.. hahaha! "Warpaint" and "taylor" will do)

For my 1/72 ground vehicles I'm personally happy with near enough.... not least because I believe in scale colour effect so model small scale in slightly lighter than "real" shades anyway. The larger the scale the more I worry. When I used to do serious large scale modelling for paying customers I was much more careful about it. I may not have been right 100% of the time but I could at least justify the choice. I've got some great literature on exact colour schemes. - The warpaint series by Dick Taylor used to be my bible when I had a weird scheme I had to get right. Those can be found quite easily on Amazon if anyone wants some heavy duty reading.

Thanks for that. It clearly didn't register as weird when I applied it but looking at the "real" photo the bands look more uniform than the decal I used. If thats the worst crime I model this year I've done OK!

Will.S: I've just heard "YELLOW" and in my head I'm hearing Klaxons going off. The sort of bright yellow you'd paint an RAF Sea King with is the devils colour! They tend to have a semi-translucent nature to them and unless applied over white give a horrible effect. My models took a quantum leap forward when I learnt to prime models that need yellow in white, paint the yellow first and mask off. Can you please tell us what model you're working on? I wanted a couple of hours easy modelling at the weekend and did the Vintage Classic Hawker Demon start to finish in a couple of "man hours" (ie did ten mins work and came back a few hours later etc), largely due to an old can of Humbrol aluminium spray paint I had to hand. You might want to try similar if you're doing a large area of yellow. Prime in white, rattle can in yellow & see what happens. I found the Humbrol aluminium left a surprisingly rough surface and the bits I hand painted over the top went on really nicely as it made a good combination main coat and primer in one go. In normal temps 30 mins sounds fine for touch dry acrylic drying time. I'd leave it 24 before using masking tape though.