[Kit Review] - Revell 1/144 - E-2C Hawkeye -

An awesome kit from Revell of Germany which i reckon all 1/144 modellers know of. Cool decals on the radar that come with the kit but won't be using them.

Excellent detail as expected from Revell of Germany, same sort of quality like the F-104, F-14 etc. Noticed that there no detail inside the propeller engines for the landing gear to attach to and the small round window on the fuselage will have to be drilled out but apart from that perfect.



Upgrades for the kit i know of are ....
Wolfpack Design - Folded wing resin conversion.
RetroKit -- Folded wing resin conversion and 8 blade Hamilton Propeller upgrade.
 FOXONE - Has very nice sets with decals, 8 blades propeller and radome parts upgrades.

Already started on the cockpit.
Ian

Sweet 1/144 - Macchi Mc.200 - Wip 3 - Completed undercarriage.

Probable the most work in progress posts ive made about a single after build and not even half way complete.

After much sanding and delicate cutting with the scalpel ive finally completed the undercarriage on this bird, twice.

Really very happy with the way it turned out, had the vague idea in my head how to make this whole new undercarriage and was not entirely sure it would work.

After sanding the replace wing section, i used some very thin plasticard for the struts in the wing section, once painted and wash is applied should look quite good.

Next problem is how to add the landing gear and without drilling a hole in the new wing section.

Ian

FeResin 1/144 - TA-7C Corsair II - Wip 3 - DECAL DISASTER!!!!

Decal disaster, while trying to fit the vac form canopy i totally didn't realise that the decals that i applied earlier this weak where being rubbed off by fingers. Luckily all the decals which where destroyed are generic safety, warning and national insignia which i can replace and no aircraft specific decals which would mean buying a new kit, phew.

That will teach me with to give a model a protective coat straight after decaling.

Cleaned up the surface, to be decal again, sign. Rubbed off the destroyed decals with blu-tac which worked great and have a look through my spare decal stash to find the same types that need to be replace.

Going to use the landing gear from the f-toys kit, much better that the resin one supplied with this kit which are basically sticks.

Ian

[Kit Review] - A Models 1/144 - E.E. Canberra Mk.8 -

Bought this kit so i can build my favorite English Electric Canberra the PR.9, PR for photo reconnaissance. PR9 was the last Canberra type in service with the Royal Air Force up intil 2006, 57 years after its first flight!

Reason i bought the Amodels MK.8 is because it is the only 1/144 Canberra available with the cockpit offset. Which is a very long term project.

The kit is a ok detail wise, panel line are fine but a bit scruffy, might have to rescribe the whole bird. But want is imporotnat is that the shape is right, got quite a bit off work to be done to make her a PR9, wider wings, electronic bumps and a navigators cockpit as well as a whole new undercarriage and landing which the kits really lack details. Still it not a Revell of Germany or Japanese manufacturers quality but just above the old crown kits which Minicraft still reproduce.



 PR9 below which i want to model in that great hemp colour i like so much and with all the cut back the armed forces are getting here in the UK, i doubt any aircraft still fly with.

Going to have to build the kit to see how good it really is, i expect alot of scratch building and putty.
Ian

Revell 1/144 - F14A Tomcat and F-14D Super Tomcat - Wip 3

2 shark teeth tomcats all decaled and weathered along with all the bits done that need to be glued except the canopy's.

Looking at the photo now i just realised that i haven't even sprayed the tail hooks for both birds, thought for the moment then that all i have to do is glues these bits an they would be complete.

Really liking the way the Sundowners f-14 looks, want to do that scheme on a VF-1 Valkyrie.

Ian

Sweet 1/144 - Hawker Hurricane - WIP 2 - Painting the camo.

Classic RAF WW2 Battle of Britain and Tropical camo scheme which im guessing nearly every Britmodler had done as one of there first models, usually a Airfix 1/72 Spitfire, was my first.

The classic looking green and brown worn by most of the RAF birds during the Battle of Britain. Sprayed brown first they brush painted the green, took plenty of very thin coats of Vallejo paint to get was i was looking for.

Tropical Hurricane, airbrushed the sand first they paint on the golden brown with a brush, did try to use the airbrush with white-tac and masking tape but didn't look right.



Ian

F-toys 1/144 - A-7E Corsair II - Wip 2- Decaled

From a low-viz grey to a high viz late 60's scheme.

The f-toys A-7E decaled as VFA-25 "Fist of the Fleet" from YKraft, who for some reason website has disappeared?.

Thinnest decals ive yet used, at first i struggled to get them adhere but with very little decal solution, then left for about 10 minutes they work great, would have been nice for the colours to be more intense.

All that's needed to be done now is the payload, going to get it fully loaded for a bomb run in Vietnam.

Ian

Space Battleship Yamato - Season 1

Just finished what has to be one of the greatest anime ive watched, Uchū Senkan Yamato, gotta be in my top 5 at least.

Its a 26 episode epic which reminds me of the new Battlestar Galactica, lots of cool action with great story telling with surprisingly for the age of the anime quite adult themes.

I think i watched this in record time, both because of the damn rubbish weather we got here and i really wanted to see what happened next.

The Yamato is one freaking cool looking ship, ive always liked it from when ever i first laid eyes on the beauty, i never realised that this Yamato is actually the resurrected Yamato from World War 2, always thought it was a namesake. The fluid line, sci-fi antennas and two tone red and grey hull just look perfect!

Know as Star Blazers in the west and quite cheap to buy here unlike most anime ive got. Going straight onto Yamato 2 which has the also looking Spaceship Andromeda, another beauty.
Ian

DML Dragon 1/144 - Ground Support Equipment -

Built what i reckon is over a year and a half ago but into a bits box and totally forgotten about. 2 Sundays back when i had the the airbrush going i rediscovered these little gems and decided to get the painted and finished around the other models i was working on. Bought with this set what feels like a long time ago!

The Ground Support Equipment includes a EPU Tractor with added steering wheel, utility cart and oxygen / nitrogen cart, all very simple to part after a coat of yellow and high lights done with a thinned brown wash. These are tiny little objects carts must only be 1cm long with the tractor being 1.5cm long.

Should be nice little diorama objects next time i take some pics of any US Navy models i got going, Not much info i can find on the EPU Tractor but reckon it must have been replaced by more modern tractors as all the photos ive seen of this are from 80's early 90's


Ian

FeResin 1/144 - TA-7C Corsair II - Wip 2 - Paint work.

Painted up all the US Navy jets at the same time, along with this TA-7C, i also painted up the f-toys A-7E but for some reason took no pic. A-7E has the same grey on top, white on the belly with a green tail for VFA-25 Fist of the Fleet.

Very happy with the way the paint turned out on this one, was a bit fearful about this being my first resin kit.
Ian

Revell 1/144 - F14A Tomcat and F-14D Super Tomcat - Wip 2

Big cat all sprayed up. Airbrushed last weekend, details painted yesterday and a gloss coat today, ready to be decaled but not sure when.

Think the under shading is just visible, mostly on the ghost grey sundowner cat but reckon the flash must have annihilated what could be seen.

Looking forward to getting the the susndowner decals on the jet, those tail marking have always been a favorite.
Ian

Sweet 1/144 - Macchi Mc.200 - Wip 2 - More work on the undercarriage.

After sanding down the plasticard on the wing i started to build the new undercarriage yesterday. This is really small stuff, from one end of the new wheel bay to the other is about an inch. Cut out the shape i wanted and glued that on and when that all glued i will attempt to sand it into the correct shape hopefully being flush with the wing.

Going to be doing 2 types from the research ive done, one which is the grey is so you can see into the fuselage and the other is closed.

After i cut out the wing section and before i started to make the new wheel bays, i replaced the section part with some plasticard and once the glue dried i cut away the excess as close as i could get to the wing. then spent quite some time sanding. Looks flush but guess i won't really know until i get some paint on.


Got some of the birds ive been working on airbrushed last week, will hope to add the detail on them tomorrow.
Ian