Peter s

Thats probably their logic too. I've spent a small fortune on Xtradecals though.... Hannants have had a lot of revenue pass through their books. I bought the resupply set for my Lancaster as the Lanc was big enough to justify it & I quite like building the vehicles. You're not going to spend that to get a couple of bombs to convert a Spit into a fighter bomber though. I've just searched for "1/72 1000lb bomb" on eBay and got very little. I did find a single 500lb bomb for £5.25 plus £3.00 shipping. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EDB672121-Eduard-Brassin-1-72-Spitfire-500lb-Bomb-Set-Eduard/193407339378?epid=7012046058&hash=item2d07f9cb72:g:tiYAAOSw3BBehgbu Forget that! Its more than a whole Spit kit. Thats why I think there's a market for a smaller simpler set of extra bombs. As I said from my projects the two I've found hard to source in affordable quantity are British post war 1000lb bombs and Brit WW2 250lb ones. If you want to do a Black Buck Vulcan you'll need something like 18x 1000lb bombs. I've got a few surplus from the F4 (built with the rocket option) but another 4 F4s is an expensive way of getting bombs 😆

I can spend a whole day modelling very easily if I'm allowed! I've just sprayed the underside of a Spit and a Defiant now which was about 5 mins with the airbrush and 20 mins with the masking off but thats it on those projects today. I learnt the hardway with water based paints to leave 24 hrs between coats when masking tape or spray varnish is involved. Nice alternative to a "coffee break" anyway....

During the week thats been about my aim too. It breaks up the day. I've got a short attention span and find myself zoning out looking at the laptop. Half an hour doing something fun refreshes me. Its ridiculous I can't really go back to work.... I'm based in a university lab but it would be quite easy for me to do some work on my own either at weekends or early/late in the day. There's a limit to what I can do at home. The airfix breaks have kept me sane!

BF109s have been my achilles heel. I just posted pics of 2 that are "OK" and thats a big improvement for me. I've also just posted my finished Stuka pics. The Mods have been really fast recently so hopefully approved soon. I CAN do "big builds" like B17s but these days I find myself doing a lot of single seaters fast as they're fun.... also dumping one isn't a big deal. Good luck!

My battle of Britain set continues: Bf109s have always been a curse for me. I've done so many "adequately" and never been happy. A combination of yellow being a difficult colour, the success of the model depending on the cammo colours being "just right" (I've done a few that should have been right but just didn't look it) and the fact its a really small model. This is about as small as I can go without losing detail. I used the same paints as the Stukas in exactly the same way with the RLM71 (vallejo) plus extra gray-violet added. Thats really helped. The counter colour is their 71.044 "Grau" whichis allegedly RLM02 plus RLM65 hellblau (Incidentally I had a couple of bottles of this colour mislabelled as graublau which really confused me) . The blotches on the side were done using a cotton bud in place of a paint brush and more or less dry brushed on. The cotton bud gives a more random shape than a brush with a slightly defused edge. I left the horizontal tailplanes off the kit until the blotches were done. The fact the rudder is a separate part is also really handy on these kits. The one on the ground is the E4 kit, the one "taking off" is the E3 starter kit. Both done with Xtradecals from the Luftwaffe Battle of britain sheet (I've used almost every decal in this set so far!) The E3 was a little experiment based on a trick I used to use on big armour. The tanks were outrageously expensive so to fit stowage and figures I'd drill into the stowage/resin crew and fit a neodynium magnet. These are incredibly strong for their size. A steel plate on the inside of the tank lets you fit "bits" without glue and without damaging the model. The E3 has a magnet between the wings and there's a corresponding magnet on the stand. Its a touch wobbly (lucky its a small kit) but I've used a larger magnet on a Spitfire and its a really good result. The magnets are 20-50p each on Ebay. /media/tinymce_upload/f1f8b8753f43a8fa5bbdcd110f88d4b2.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/b4e1f74bdc0922a4ef48aa7b17ed0d13.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/e0800f55f6d5bd5ee8a244b66ef3905d.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/e7443834da712ed638870e625f2e69c0.jpg

Agreed. Never a good idea.

Final set of pictures. I took these about 6pm last night and the evening sun coming through the back door cast a nice shadow but also reflected off the shinier parts so maybe not the best set of pics. I've usually found dull days or morning light works best for me. Both together.... I used a desert base but a English backdrop to try and give the idea of a very dusty field in N.France in mid summer. /media/tinymce_upload/c4ddb78c50d5c9341defd35fac6c00bc.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/219cc1cbd1add06c44677f8137c29786.jpg "Vintage" filter can work really well. This is a bit second rate. /media/tinymce_upload/f645d027e3fb27aaf59f9cc6000c20ae.jpg I'm a bit less confident with undersides. Over weathering can be a disaster and I've rarely seen a good authentic pic of a real combat plane to work out how dirty they get. These are pretty clean. The best underside I do are Spitfires and thats solely down to the 1960s Battle Of Britain movie. They really streaked their aircraft with oil and cordite. /media/tinymce_upload/65677efa814ca3b8ed17ca3e4996018a.jpg Based on this pic I did the bombs with a dark green body and dark grey tail /media/tinymce_upload/2b6da4bcc7a6317671fd431ce4c6c6b8.jpg New tool on its own: /media/tinymce_upload/84e37e17d4b2f864fd8a960823d166ab.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/aa93dbf0f53607670a80de01c386956e.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/e560eab3eea51a83c267d4e4a7bb140c.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/fee89753b2939c4e326bd33a28fd17b7.jpg Shows off the Jericho sirens and the nice moulding of the air intake. Finally the old tool: /media/tinymce_upload/e8d7eff178963b6f1261bd31aa964365.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/5c138ddc7b9492030440db87636f91c0.jpg Plenty of the old tools are showing their age badly but this isn't one of them. Overall the new tool wins as the better kit but merely on the finer details. The open cockpit is a nice touch, the Jericho siren unusual on most Stukas, the rear MG is very fine (the old tool is crude next to it). As I said originally the old tool was the first kit I made without help as a kid and it was a fortunate choice. This is still a really fun build and very straight forward to build well.

Thanks. I can do much of the list. You might have done me a big favour too. I do wonder if the list is in errror when it suggests the He 115 was air sea rescue. I found a few pics of them attacking convoys early in the battle and a couple even came down over England. Its a big kit. Like you say an He111 on floats. I'm tempted to hedge my bets. Do it in combat colours but take a photo of it with an airfix pilot in a small raft. I'm sure a combat 115 would happily rescue a colleague if possible. I'll need to save the red crosses for something more appropriate. The British and German definition of the battle is vastly different. The germans go until May 1941 (when the bombers switched to Russia). The British version is much shorter. July-Oct 1940 more or less. I've decided to start at Dunkirk and go to the start of the Blitz. Say Dec 1940? If I start on the battle of France I'll never finish!

There's very few of my models that don't have some minor issue somewhere (some have some big issues too!). 95% give me a lot of pleasure making them and I'm usually happy with the end result but I'll describe them a "B+" then end up doing the same kit again and again. Beaufighters are one I'm never quite satisfied with... A4 skyhawk is another. As long as your current project is as good or better than your last one you're winning. I'm an amateur at photography and photoshop but even knowing a few basic tricks (plus only showing the best pics) tells me that when you see "pro-" models on websites you're seeing a lot of post-model improvements. Its like photos of fashion models being touched up. A pic of Kate Moss in Vogue isn't what Kate Moss looks like at home! Proper lighting, proper lenses, filters etc can make a huge difference. I also avoid close up pics. When I snap a plane usually its far enough away that the whole plane is in frame. Close ups are like looking down a magnifying glass and show up faults you can't see on the shelf. That said a really nicely tooled kit makes life easy too. I did the old 1/72 JU-88 recently and the kindest thing I can say of the final model is that it looks quite like a JU-88. It needed a lot more work with the part fit than the new tools. The German cammo hides many sins. If it was a bare metal finish model it would have gone in the dustbin. As it stands when I finish my Battle of Britain project it'll be behind the DO-17 and HE-111! in the pics!

On the contrary. They reaped the consequences of it and learnt a very hard lesson. Hitlers speaches about jewish conspiracies etc lead to Germany being reduced to 1 brick high, 8 million German dead alone and the Eastern half under Soviet control for 60 years. In Germany you have to push your luck to get arrested. Britain has similar restrictions... there's laws on inciting violence, there's libel laws, there's laws on whipping up racism. That Islamist-sympathiser who burnt a wreath on rembrance day got 18 months for it. Abu Hamza got 8 years then a one way trip to the US for preaching hate. In the US I'm sure the wreath burner could have claimed first ammendment rights. To paraphrase Stan Lee with rights come responsibility.

I know people who use car screenwash to dilute tamiya paints. The detergent in that works well. Personally I would NOT do that because breathing in an aerosol of methanol seems very silly indeed. Generally I find Tamiya spray OK without thinning. If it gets a bit old I'll add a little ethanol (much less toxic than meths). Normally I do the bulk of my work with vallejo model air which again rarely needs thinning. A drop of the proper vallejo thinner can help. Don't use anything alcohol based on model air. It curdles instantly. I use warm water and fairy liquid to clean my airbrush and the residue of the fairy liquid in the cup is enough to help break the surface tension. I've found model air doesn't like to enter the panel lines on new tool airfix so if you spray a dark Tamiya as a first coat/primer then a coat of model air about 10-15 mins later the panel lines can stand out quite well with no extra work. This is much better for mono-colour schemes. I've never air brushed Humbrol. Its a nice paint and brush paints well but I'd assume it would need a reasonable amount of thinner.

Thats really good! The stripes are an insane level of detail. I may have to copy that (or at least try.....). Nice job with the canopy too. I've done the same with the razor saw. A certain company from further East than Germany starting with E...... does some very nice later war Spits not covered by Airfix (Much harder to build well though). Generally you get about a 1/3rd of a box worth of unused parts including extra canopies (in multiple parts) and up to 3 extra doors so I hoard those and use them on the Airfix kits like you do. It really makes a big difference.

/media/tinymce_upload/e29b5a9b82553022512894e0b420322f.jpg Here's my ongoing Stuka project. The real plane carried the swastikas so I happily pay a bit extra for the Xtradecals and fit them myself. However as T2B says if you don't understand why these are a sensitive subject you need to get out more. My grandfather liberated a concentration camp in the last few weeks of the war. There's people still alive who remember what that symbol meant in the 40s and morons who still spray it on walls in 2020. When I used to sell £1000 model tanks I was very wary with the people I used to accept as customers. Too many potential buyers had an unhealthy interest in the SS and I refused to provide people with shrines to Nazi-ism (people asking for 3rd SS Pz div tanks set off big flashing alarm bells especially) My stukas are sitting on a shelf side by side with Spitfires, Hurricanes and defiants so are very much in context. Bottom line is that Airfix and others are a commercial company and if they provide swastikas they can't sell that product in Germany (or several other countries). Display my stukas in Germany and you'll be prosecuted.

Very nice! Even with an airbrush the 109 is so tiny in 1/72 its easier said than done. Whats worked well for me in the past is to use a cotton bud (Q-tip in American). Blot it almost dry on paper (I use acrylic) then lightly apply the blots. The furry head gives a defuse blot if you're careful rather than a paint spot. Your pilot is so good no-one will notice the lack of cockpit detail either. He could be 1/48 easily.

Post 5: (they seem to be out of sequence above hence the numbering!) /media/tinymce_upload/23d6a39efcc27616f4aa60bae024ba4f.jpg RLM70 applied. I put a tiny application of brown filter v airbrush at this stage just to dirty them up a little. /media/tinymce_upload/c50409944f868980c519dbbacbbde4b1.jpg Masked off for painting the undersides. Tin foil is very handy for protecting weird shaped parts (like Stuka wheels). The delicate Frog tape is a secret weapon. Its identical to the Tamiya stuff but about £6 for that huge roll. Ideal for masking off a whole Spitfire wing with one bit of tape. /media/tinymce_upload/97a067d6cee11eb79da4589058bfdc68.jpg You can't see the blue in this pic but the masking is all off so the tactical markings on the new tool are revealed. Final pic for today: /media/tinymce_upload/b1312b4024074f7632e5cd4c84e4fd46.jpg Satin varnish applied (the real colour pic has a bit of a shine to it) & decals on. New tool is the yellow one, old tool the red. At this stage both make really good models. Where the new tool shines is the smaller detail and the neatness of the parts. Fitting the tail struts after painting the blue undersides was tricky with the older kit but dead easy on the new. The prop is designed to be easily fitted late in the build on the new and the moulding of the air intake grill is far nicer.

Hi Heather- well spotted. I missed the gladiator from the list but not the build. Its actually done and sitting there on the shelf. I've run into a bit of a blank with the seaplanes. The only pics I found were the He 59 biplanes. Its an assumption on my part that they'd look similar. Mine dropping in RLM 70/71 is tempting as it would hide the lack of detail. Its not started yet so I'll ponder. One of the reasons I've stuck to an "elastic" battle of Britain is that once I get into "battle of France" territory too badly I send up needing to buy a lot of expensive French aircraft I'm not hugely interested in and it gets crazy... The wiki list avoids our bomber force which was busy bombing invasion barges so no immediate need for Hampden, Blenheim, Whitley etc. either. I've used this as my source list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_of_the_Battle_of_Britain United Kingdom[edit]Only the squadrons listed as Battle of Britain RAF squadrons were counted as being part of the Battle of Britain for the award of a campaign medal Bristol BlenheimBlenheim Mk. IF – Fighter Command (night fighter)Blenheim Mk IVF – Coastal CommandBristol Beaufighter Mk. I – Fighter CommandBoulton Paul Defiant Mk. I – Fighter CommandGloster Gladiator – Fighter Command (limited numbers)Hawker Hurricane Mk. I and Mk IIA series I – Fighter CommandSupermarine Spitfire Mk. I and Mk. II – Fighter CommandWestland Lysander (limited numbers) (Opening days)Germany[edit]Breguet 521 BizerteDornier Do 17Do 17M and PDo 17 Z-2Do 17 Z-3Dornier Do 18 D-1 (Air-Sea rescue)Focke-Wulf Fw 200 C-3Heinkel He 59 C-2 (Air-Sea rescue)Heinkel He 111He 111 H-2He 111 H-3He 111 H-4He 111 P-1Heinkel He 115 B-1 and B-2 (Air-Sea rescue)Junkers Ju 87 B-1 and B-2Junkers Ju 88 A-1 and A-5Messerschmitt Bf 109Bf 109 E-1, E-1/BBf 109 E-3Bf 109 E-4, E-4/B, E-4/NBf 109 E-7, E-7/NBf 109 F-1Messerschmitt Bf 110Bf 110 C-4, C-4/BBf 110 C-5

Post 4... back to the models./media/tinymce_upload/dd03677394cfb097e101bac873914660.jpg I had a bit of Tamiya AS-3 left in a rattle can so used it as a primer coat. Model air doesn't like unprimed plastic. Normally I airbrush Tamiya XF- paints, normally black or white as a primer. This can work nicely on new tool kits as the vallejo is reluctant to enter the panel lines and a black primed model oversprayed in vallejo can have well shaded panel lines for zero effort. I'm using Xtradecals for both planes. The new tool is getting a yellow engine cowl and prop spinner. This one carried the sirens which is unusual for BoB stukas and gave me a chance to fit the sirens included in the new tool kits. The old Stuka is not getting tactical markings and a red spinner. No sirens. Yellow, and to an extent bright red are best applied over a white base so both props sprayed with tamiya white as a base, then either flat yellow or flat red applied next. /media/tinymce_upload/3f6944b2d496a3814574c72d2984f6fd.jpg Cowl on the new tool is now masked off as are the props. Props then sprayed with tamiya green-black which is similar but not identical to the Vallejo RLM70. Gives a better model if the shades are varied a little. /media/tinymce_upload/7b0ac2629b2a4e2b7d75d646660465aa.jpg Final pic for this week. Finished props and both planes with my version of RLM71 . As I said earlier this pic is misleading and the colour appears much shinier and lighter than it looks with the eye. More to follow next week. Enjoy your VE day bank holiday.

Post 3: Slight tangent here. Back in the 1980s the Airfix kit depicted the plane painted in a single shade of very dark gray-green. Tamiya AS-3 which is more or less RLM76 gray-green is a close match. My original 1980s model looked very like the Hendon version. Very dark monocolour on top, light blue underneath. It was a favourite I kept for years. Initially I was going to repeat that on this build but these days Stukas are almost always depicted as RLM70/RLM71. Where possible I try to copy original pics as no two model paint companies paints are exactly the same shade. I like Vallejo model air for performance (plus their safety profile being water based minimises what I breathe in and what I need to clean the air brush afterwards). The down side of model air is while many of their colours look "just right" some are pretty dubious. Their RLM70/71 gives a big contrast between colours. I used both straight out of the bottle for the Dornier 17 part of my project and was more than happy. However looking at original pics of the Stuka taken from signal magazine /media/tinymce_upload/c9b702bcfd753746725223b2a8e0bbff.jpg You've got to stare REALLY hard to see the difference between the two shades. This is an original colour pic not a recolour (from Signal magazine) and if nothing else you can see why at one point Stukas were modelled in one shade. Weirdly the pics I have of Dorniers and one of a JU-52 which you would assume are also RLM70/71 seem to show more contract between the colours. /media/tinymce_upload/0614cff464a95962b7aee92579bee2ab.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/5282ae5e622cbeb2b25ae2a4e65758dc.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/04b9911d1dd09e145a5825cde508e055.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/b0ec7491f26c5cbfc0000bacaffd691e.jpg The JU 52 may have been painted in maritime shades but the Dorniers really should be the same as the Stuka... I think????? My solution has been to do each Luftwaffe plane in turn as best I can match to the photo in question. With the Stukas I've reduced the contrast between RLM70/71 by adding about 1 part gray-violet to 5 parts paint for each one. Thats darkened the rather brown vallejo RLM71 and reduced the contrast. I'm a believer in scale colour effect. The logic of that is that a 1/72 model viewed from 2 feet away looks like the real thing from 144 feet away and generally colours appear lighter the further back you are. I first found that with scale Panzers. The really dark grey which is almost charcoal used on the real thing looked too dark on a model. Lightening it a little made my tanks look "right" while technically being "wrong". I should also note that when sprayed Vallejo paints are quite satin and the shine can make them photograph much lighter than they look on the bench. I normally dull them down with matt varnish and weathering effects after the decals go on. Between that and mobile phone pics some of the build pics may look a touch weird.

Post 2: /media/tinymce_upload/65acb1222247ad686897f95da22d0bd0.jpg As you can see, similar packaging and even a very similar Italian version for the alternative scheme. /media/tinymce_upload/2c63adc5b881e05afddf51fe9e68a8b1.jpg Open the box and the difference is obvious. The new tool has A LOT more parts and is technically quite challenging in places. In contrast the older kit is very straight forward. NO FLASH AT ALL on the old kit and all parts really nicely moulded. With most of my builds I'm lazy painting the parts you can't see. I spend a reasonable amount of time painting the crew and with the pilots in place and the canopy mounted there's little cockpit detail visible. The stuka has a big cabin so painting it once assembled is quite practical. /media/tinymce_upload/cacabed0deba9cf8e9cb8454e5b21856.jpg Once built (the new tool is in front) you can tell the new tool is a little more detailed but both look like Stukas. One aspect of the new tool I like is the extra choices built in. Whereas the old tool has the mounts for the 50 kg wing bombs ready moulded the new tool gives you more choice. It comes with 500 and 250kg bomb options all of which are very nicely moulded. Finer fins that the old tool. For variation the new tool gets the single 500kg bomb while the 250 and wing bombs from the new tool are being donated to the older kit.

Hi everyone, as I seem to have had a lot of time on my hands in the past 6 weeks..... (hmm) I've been building like some sort of madman. I set myself the challenge of trying to model the entire battle of Britain in 1/72 before lockdown ends. Obviously not every individual aircraft but I'm trying to do every one in Wikipedias list of aircraft of the battle of Britain. This isn't as mad as it sounds as the offical list is pretty short. On the British side its Spitfire, Hurricane, Defiant, Blenheim 1F and Lysander (Air Sea rescue.... I had to do some digging to get that explained). On the German side He 111, Do 17, Ju88, Ju87, Bf110, Bf109. There's multiple sea planes which have proven tricky but Airfix do/have done everything on the list. I've added old matchbox versions of the Lysander (which is hard to get these days because its still a very nice kit) Fiat F42 Falco (because the Italians did take part & the version in Hendon was shot down during the BoB) and He 115 floatplane which is being done as a "red cross" rescue plane. The Fiat also holds up as a nice build, the He 115 is a bit of a crude slab of plastic however. Bits are good but the wings are horribly lacking detail. In due course I'll post pics of the whole set (I'm quite far along and given myself extra projects by doing E3 and E4 Bf109 and being flexible with my time span of the BoB to stretch into the Blitz of later 1940... this justifies bringing in the A4 Ju88 and an extra defiant as an all black nightfighter). Based on some comments I made about the old tool Ju87 comparing well to modern kits I'm going to do both side by side as a build thread. I bought the old tool in error seeing "red box" and "bargain price" on eBay and clicking before checking. Its stamped 75th anniversary of the battle of Britain which presumably dates the issue to 2010. I have it on good authority its a 1978 retool of a 1957 original. I've really fond memories of this kit as its the first one I ever built myself. I'd have been about 7 so that puts it about 1983. More to follow with pics........

Thats excellent! I did the one that came in the VC heroes 4 set a while back and it was OK-ish but badly in need of an update. I love the Belgian markings. I keep meaning to do a suitable kit in those and given that Airfix even do a Belgian option for their latest gladiator I've no excuse.

I don't know whether XL426 has any "special" insignia but printing a black serial number onto clear decal film is dead easy. If you have access to a laser printer just buy a sheet of clear laser printer decal film, type the serial in the right size into Word (or other wordprocessor) set the printer to best quality glossy photo paper and press print. For inkjet to need to seal the film after printing with a spray. Sounds like you need more than just a serial though. eBay usually has something at a price if Airfix customer services can't help

Thanks! The Lossiemouth Buccaneer crews used to have a lot of fun. I really remember going on holiday to Islay on a CalMac ferry and they used us for a bit of anti-ship practice. Same deal. Small black dots at wave height trailing smoke and absolutely silent because they were so close to Mach 1, pull up and simulate a skip bombing toss at the last moment and the noise was ear splitting! Like ratch says too the Lightnings really used to show off. By the time I saw them they were almost all gone from frontline service but they knew how to show off. I'd have been 5 and can barely remember it but we stopped for a toilet break at Housesteads roman fort on Hadrians wall. My dad shouted, "its concorde1", "its crashing!" then THREE Vulcans in close formation dived through the valley below the actual height of the wall. Sadly I can't remember the planes just the "drama" My parents live in S.Leics now on a low level flightpath so get a lot of the transit traffic heading to Duxford etc. Seeing a spit or a B25 when you don't expect it is more fun that seeing one scheduled at an airshow for me. Its the difference between Safari and a zoo 😎

I saw this for real so its no fantasy: Leuchars airshow, probably about 1986-1988. Just as we got there, before we got onto the base we saw 4 bucanneers about 50 feet off the ground coming in so fast they were silent. As they passed over the base they detonated a load of pyrotechnics on the ground but that was drowned out by the sheer SCREAM of the jets ripping over. Never in a million years could you do that in the UK now. The end result wasn't much short of the sort of napalm strike you see in a Vietnam movie! I'd settle for seeing the sort of things that few alive have ever seen: an Me163 doing a takeoff or a B36 just flying low over the crowd. In fact these days I'd settle for an airshow!

I do like the concept of the Hurricane II though. What was released as part of the operation Torch club set is one of my favourite kits. A choice of cannon or machine gun metal wing, 2 tropical filters and the option to have a hook (or not) means 1 kit can be done in so many ways. I always find it strange how many re-boxes of the same kit Airfix do. The blenheim is crazy. All the parts for the bomber or fighter version are in the box so why issue a fighter version then next year a bomber version? I wonder if people seeing the fighter held off buying because they wanted a bomber? Totally agree on the quality of Airfix decals. Also easy to use as well as looking good. I built the new and old tool Stukas at the weekend. I think the model gods smiled on me as a kid. That old tool stuka still builds up into a very nice model very easily. No flash on the parts and not a speck of filler needed. The new tool is obviously better but it also needs a lot more skill to do well. I've started taking some pics so I'll post when I'm finished (which at this rate won't be long... I started filling a form in for permission to go back to work at least on a limited basis but I'm still not short on model time)