april - romsey modellers · good as it provides excellent natural light. 10 models made it in with...
TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 2011
THIS MONTH
For the last six months we have had not less than 20 members at our club meeting which shows the relative health of the club, certainly compared with a few years ago when we were struggling to get 10 along. On Wednesday we should have some more news on our IPMS membership application, which I hope will strengthen the club further, it looks like the only way is up for the club.
Once again I have had a great response for contributions to the magazine, and have even got some left over for next month. For the second month running the page count exceeds 30 pages, considering we run no ads , we must be almost publishing as much content as some of the “professional” magazines , perhaps we should start charging!
So what’s in this month’s Romsey Modeller? To start with we cover the result of the Tangmere competition and a report on the fantastic reception we received when we went to present the models to the museum. We have two show reports (it could have been three but you can have too much of a good thing). The shortage of aircraft builds recently have been put right with no less than three articles. I complete my Sea Vixen, Pat covers the building of two Spitfires and Richard makes some interesting modifications to one of his (large) stash of TSR2s. Dale tells us about his HMS KGV, Karol continues his work on the Polish Special forces and last but certainly not least Paul writes another instalment on his 2007 Kawasaki.
Finally congratulations to Russell Eden on gaining a well deserved Gold for his Nashorn at the recent Poole Vikings Show, he also took a Bronze (as did I), while Steve Edward got a highly commended.
Tony…
This is the newsletter of Romsey Modellers a group of plastic modellers based in Southern Hampshire. We cater for all modelling genres and skill levels from beginners to well seasoned gurus.
We meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from 8pm to 10pm in Ampfield, Hampshire, where we often run workshops and club competitions but more importantly have a good chat about our hobby. We also attend most of the local model shows, where we exhibit our member’s completed projects.
We have an open door policy so if you want to sample how we can help you get more out of your hobby or just come and have a friendly discussion (tea and biscuits provided) please feel free to turn up – see the last page for details or visit our web site
www.romseymodellers.co.uk
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CONTENTS
April 2011 ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
This Month ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Contents ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Club News ........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Tangmere Presentation by Paul Adams ............................................................................................................. 6 East Midlands Model Show – Hinckley, 27th March 2011 by Paul Adams.......................................................... 6 Newmod Model Show 2nd April by Steve Edwards ............................................................................................. 9 Poole Vikings Show 16th April ............................................................................................................................. 9 Vixen Va Va Voom Part Deux – by Tony Adams ............................................................................................... 10 Wot I dun this Mumf ‐ April 2011 by Steve Edwards........................................................................................ 14 Ks Workshop Kawasaki 2007 ZXRR Part 4 by Paul Adams................................................................................ 14 King George V 1/350 part 2 by Dale Koppi ....................................................................................................... 16 Polish Special Forces – by Karol Wicinski ......................................................................................................... 18 St George’s Competition Entry Part 2 by Russell Eden ..................................................................................... 19 Electrifying a TSR 2! By Richard Stewart .......................................................................................................... 22 Tail of two Spitties….. ....................................................................................................................................... 24 Club Diary ......................................................................................................................................................... 32 Contact Info ...................................................................................................................................................... 32
CLUB NEWS
VISIT TO AIRFIX
We will be visiting the Airfix factory in Margate on Thursday 22nd September. Which gives plenty of time to book a day off work, we will arrange travel nearer the time. It should be a great way to celebrate our club’s tenth anniversary.
TANGMERE COLD WAR COMPETITION BY PAUL ADAMS
The March meeting played host to the final stages of the Tangmere Military Museum cold war build with the long awaited competition. The 10 entries from 8 modellers were judged by members with runaway winner Tony Adams’s superbly camouflaged Sukhoi SU‐25 capturing the first prize cash award of £50 and a nice shiny glass trophy for his mantle‐piece. Second place and £30 prize went to Annual competition winner Karol Wicinski with his TS‐II Iskra, with Brian Sampson taking a deserved third place, and £20, with his bare metal finished Illushin IL‐28. Well done to the winners and a big thank you to all those that braved the judges eyes once more.
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Entry No Entrant Model Title
1st’s (3 pts)
2nd’s (2 pts)
3rd’s (1 pts)
Total points
Placing
1 Will Booth Mig 23 - 10TH
2 Karol Wicinski MI-2 I I 4 7TH
3 Karol Wicinski TS-II Iskra III IIIII IIII 23 2ND
4 Brian Sampson
Ilushin IL-28 I III IIII 13 3RD
5 Tony Adams
Sukhoi SU-25 IIIIIIII IIII I 33 1ST
6 Sean Summers Mig 17 I 3 8TH
7 Paul Guppy Mig 21 II II I 11 4TH
8 Dale Koppi Mig 15 I 2 9TH
9 Steve Edwards MIL-8 II II 6 5TH
10 Brian S/Steve E
Antonov AN-2 I IIII 7 6TH
On behalf of the club I like to thank Peter Lloyd for the initial idea, sourcing the models at his own cost and stumping up the £100 prize fund!
Peter Lloyld (right) presents Tony Adams with the Tangmere group build trophy
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TANGMERE PRESENTATION BY PAUL ADAMS
Saturday 26th March was the date set for the handing over of the models to Tangmere’s curator, Mr David Burleigh. The museum laid on refreshment’s while we waited for club members to arrive with their models which offered a chance to chat to several senior staff members of the museum about ourselves and the club’s activities. Shortly after, the models were placed in the cabinet, which is situated in the link corridor to the cold war exhibition hall itself. The location is rather good as it provides excellent natural light. 10 models made it in with another 2 builds to follow from Vic Short and Roger Doswell. Our exhibits sit alongside cold war models built by other clubs and some by the curator himself. After posing for more photos we were treated to a guided tour from David, which was
most enjoyable given his in‐ depth knowledge of the exhibits. David’s descriptions of his 1/13th scale Lancaster bomber build was quite something given the challenges he faced!! It was interesting to see the record breaking Hawker Hunter Mk3 is currently receiving maintenance work to both the fuselage and engine as specified by the RAF to the museum, who have to carry out the work. The machine is currently in two pieces!! Inevitably talk turned
toward other projects we could do for the museum – they are looking for a model of a Valiant, to go alongside their Vulcan and Victor models. Handily of course Airfix have just released a 1/72nd kit. Any one fancy a go!!? The day concluded with an appreciative thank you from the staff, whom are clearly are delighted by our contribution their museum. More photos from the day can be found on our website ‐ http://www.romseymodellers.co.uk/archives/1451
http://www.fleetairarm.com/en‐GB/event/14.as
EAST MIDLANDS MODEL SHOW – HINCKLEY, 27TH MARCH 2011 BY PAUL ADAMS
A few weeks ago I travelled to a new show for me, a popular one held at the Hinckley Leisure Centre, up Coventry way. The 131 mile trip was eased by leaving Southampton at 06:00 on the morning the clocks went forward. Suffice it to say most sensible folk were still tucked up in bed!! The leisure centre has its own large car park, so transporting the models in was no issue at all.
Most of the members from Les Garagistes were on hand, not only to present a large collection of automotive models but also to have a planning meeting for our ‘Big Display’ at Scale Modelworld in November.
After spending an hour or so setting up the display (30 minutes max with Romsey!!!), we settled down with coffee and scones and discussed ideas for the SMW display. What seemed liked two hours later we were none
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the wiser on what direction we were taking other than settling on our 12 themes which will cover the 84 ft table!! Fortunately, there’s still plenty of time yet. The Les Garagiste table normally features some loose themes at each show and on this occasion we wheeled out (get it!!) themes on Martini, Ferrari, Bikes, Lotus and 1/43rd models. 8 modellers provided 86 models!!
The show opened at 10:00am and we wasted no time in having a good look about. The main part of the show is held in a large double width sports hall, with a smaller side room (bad lighting I’m afraid) and an upstairs section which houses the competition area and squeezes in a few more club displays.
The quality of models on display was of a very high standard, some of which I will leave for the photographs to explain better.
These two 1/32nd WWI aircraft were from excellent Wingnuts kits
and this superbly weathered B17 had battle damage too.
Unusual subjects to see, this TB1 was superbly built and weathered
Next is another, a vacformed 1/20th scale Bluebird CN7 land speed record car. It measures about 440 mm long!! This one’s joined my shopping list!!
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Another beautifully weathered model‐a German U‐Boat in 1/72nd
This 1/32nd Trumpeter Lightening was one of several large scale models built by Ted Taylor. The bare metal finish was perfect.
This XH558 Vulcan isn’t 1/72nd it’s 1/48th, dwarfing the 1/32nd jet
There was some nice armour around too this 1/35th T‐54 was modelled on an abandoned vehicle seen near Kabul.
On a table full of Sci‐Fi subjects was this crashed spacecraft complete with fuselage frame detail,
and in competition, a superbly weathered 1/35th winter Flak unit.
I decided to enter the competition as they had a category for ‘racing models’, so I entered my Assen Yamaha M1 along with Shane’s 1/43rd Ferrari and Duncan’s super detailed Yamaha M1. In competition you always expect to see exceptional modelling and this show didn’t disappoint.
I thought I was unfortunate not to place on the day, but when I got the model home I spotted a rear brake calliper hanging off as well as a Yamaha badge!! I’m sure the judges did too!! Shane’s Ferrari bagged second place, but new boy Duncan stole the show with a first in class and Best in Show, a rare occurrence for an automotive model to do so.
In essence, a very well organised and run show, plenty to see and buy if you’re in the mood. Highly Recommended.
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NEWMOD MODEL SHOW 2ND APRIL BY STEVE EDWARDS
Dale and I arrived at the school in Newbury to find several other club members waiting for us. This was reassuring as there had been some doubt as to how many would turn up and at one point I thought I might be on my own.
We were allowed to park fairly close to the entrance to unload and then I moved the car into the main car park.
The show this year took up three decent size rooms at the school, with an Airfix build a spitfire for the kids situated in the food hall. Talking of which, Dale and I sampled the various foodstuffs on sale during the day, and very nice they were too.
We set out the stand, and eventually had Keith Hawkins, Phil, Peter, Karol, Dale and myself in attendance, it being Karol’s first time displaying at a show.
There where, as usual, some excellent models on show, amongst my favourites being a display of 1/48th scale RAF WW2 bombers, and some lovely armour by the Tank Museum volunteers.
As usual there where plenty of traders and I spent too much!
I will let you judge for yourself from the photos the standard of models, but I, for one, was suitably impressed.
A good show, improved on from their first one last year, I imagine it will grow and b e more successful with each year.
POOLE VIKINGS SHOW 16TH APRIL
With 2 show reports already I will hold this one over to next month’ Magaizine
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VIXEN VA VA VOOM PART DEUX – BY TONY ADAMS
Following on from last month’s build article of Airfix’s 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW2
With the cockpit complete it was time to zip up the fuselage, before doing so the air intakes had to be constructed, the did produce a noticeable seam inside which was a devil to get rid off, copious amounts of Mr Surfacer 500 eventually did the trick. When the front part of the intake was offered up there is a huge gap, which needed to be filled by plastic card.
The rear pipes were sprayed with Alclad and highlighted with Pro Modeller wash
There is a big gap with at the side of the air intake which needs attention
With the interior parts in place the two halves of the fuselage were mated, after remembering to insert the navigators window. The rest of the fuselage parts were rapidly assembled , including put what I though was plenty of lead shot in the nose cone.
Fuselage parts ready for a bit of mating! The fuselage seam is quite prominent and required a reasonable amount of filling and rubbing down ( before doing this the window was masked with bare metal foil)
The booms where assembled and their seams attended to before being attached to the fuselage along with the tail wing. I was planning to fold the wings and had a bit of a struggle getting the wing fold mechanism in place ( this should have been done earlier but I thought I knew best!). Next the wings were constructed and when the various pre painted areas have been masked I was ready for painting. The following photos cover that process…
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With the wings constructed we were ready for painting
Plasticard masks were made for the air intakes , with any gaps filled with blu tak
Tamiya fine grey primer was decanted and applied by airbrush
Pre shading – Thinned Tamiya X1 black was sprayed over all panel lines
A couple of coats of Mr Color white was applied to the undersides, thinly enough to let the underlying pre shade to show through.
Having got a good effect I didn’t want to skimp on the masking
Mr Color Dark Grey applied to the upper surfaces, to enhance the panel shading I sprayed the same paint lighted with white in the centre of each panel.
Having removed the masks and given the model several coats of Klear the decals were applied
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There were a huge number of stencil decals to apply , after several nights work they were all on and sealed with another coat of Klear.
The panel lines were brought out using Pro Modellers. This was applied all over the model and when dry ( 20 mins ) it was wiped of using a paper towel
The same technique was used on the upper surfaces providing an interesting non‐uniform look
The final weathering stage was a pin wash. Small spots of black, brown , white and yellow oil paint were added all over the model ( a bit scary) , then a brush wetted with turpentine was pulled in line with the airflow.
The resultant effect produced a subtle streaking of the paint.
With the main painting done the various odds and ends where attached. The wings were a bit of a struggle , but I finally manages to get them in place , however when I did the model sat on it tail despite the large amount of lead I had put into the nose , gurrrrrrrr.
After some reflection I drilled a whole in the rocket pods and filled them full of shot, I did the same to the Firestreak missiles and when attached the model reluctantly sat on it’s nose wheel , phew.
I hate tail sitters The solution, lead in the gun pods.
And that was it, this was a very enjoyable build and the quality of the model bodes well for the future of Airfix.
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WOT I DUN THIS MUMF ‐ APRIL 2011 BY STEVE EDWARDS
Hello Guys,
Well, after so much modelling optimism last month, the wheels kinda fell off this month. I have had a disappointing time with paint blockages in my airbrush that has knocked my confidence. It appears that the acrylic paints I am using are drying too quickly and gumming up the brush. I have taken some advice and hope to have better results to report next month.
However, on a plus point, for the first time in my life I have a modelling bench! I scrounged a computer desk that my son no longer required and have fitted a couple of spot lights to it. Its got shelves and things! (see photo) and I can get paint and glue on it without upsetting the Missus.
I also finally got around to turning my sons vacant bedroom into a dining room come library, so now I don’t have to rummage amongst fifteen boxes in the loft every time I am looking for a book.
That’s it really, except to say that the guys at Tangmere gave us a great reception when we took the models down, and I have attended two shows this month which are reported elsewhere in the mag. Although the awards for the competition at Poole seemed a bit confusing, I did get a ‘Highly Commended’ certificate for my figures but that’s actually a step backwards from last year so – must try harder!
TTFN
Steve
KS WORKSHOP KAWASAKI 2007 ZXRR PART 4 BY PAUL ADAMS
With 12 hour workings days the order of things presently, little has been done since last month.
I concluded then with the painful application of the carbon effect decals supplied within the kit. I have since learnt that Tamiya offer a ‘Mark Fit’ decal solution which is stronger than Daco Strong. I’ll give this a try on a future project. If you’re planning to build this kit, I’d recommend obtaining some.
With the carbon decals complete it was a simple matter of applying the multiple sponsor’s logos. Each one was trimmed of their carrier film as much a possible and applied using reference photos. Some of the logos were from the Tamiya sheets which
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demonstrated how poor the Ks Workshop kit ones were, thick with very little adhesive. Anyhow they went on with plenty of persuasion and using reference from Pitwalk 9, 2007 MotoGP archive, I got them in the right place and nicely lined up.
With the last of the decals on I was able to clearcoat and seal forever the horrid carbon effect decals. I was delighted to see that the clear had improved the finish to a point where I’m almost pleased with it, though I have lost some definition in the panel lines. Polishing it up a few days later then offered the chance to take some glamour photos of my hardwork!!
I’m now working on some photo‐etch parts and trying to get the swing‐arm in place to take the model on a stage further. I’ll tentatively say there might be more next month!!
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KING GEORGE V 1/350 PART 2 BY DALE KOPPI
This month I have been steaming ahead with this build.
SO WHAT HAVE I DONE...
I have finished the two main colours of the ship which robbed me of two rolls of masking tape.
The air vents on the deck are all painted and all the horizontal surfaces has been sprayed. Well, all apart from the turrets which have yet to be assembled. And all the structures have been glued down.
Next began the small parts that are to be attached to the main structure. This is the enjoyable part. The inclined ladders were added to the main bridge section.
Then I started work on the turrets as my gun barrels had arrived.
I found that by glueing the parts to cocktail sticks, this made spraying them so much easier.
I continued working on small parts, such as life rafts, cable reels and the like, then added them to the main structure.
I then broke out the etch again and assembled the cranes, which are a must for this kit compared to the plastic cranes that come supplied. The gun directors were next on etch assemble list along with the funnel caps and bridge radar thingy.
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These were then painted and glued to the ship. I managed to snap one of the gun directors off when I was removing the masking from the front of the ship and had to repair.
Next I started work on the guns. These were really fiddly to work with but once I had the production line going, it became easier. And that was 26 of them created. There are 4 parts to each gun, not that anyone would notice.
The twin bofors on the otherhand took what seemed forever to get them lined up and glued into place. But in the end, they too were assembled. Again I used cocktail sticks to glue them all down and paint. Then removed and fixed to the ship.
While I was finishing off the guns, I started assembling the Masts. The etch was brought out again and so was my supply of bronze tubing and needles. After spending 6 ish hours assembling these, I was indeed happy with the result.
The left is the main mast (rear) and the right is the foremast.
These were then sprayed grey, then once dry, the main mast was masked off and sprayed black from just under the platform upwards. What surprised me is that 2 years later in this ships history, they repainted the mainmast but this time from halfway down from the main platform.
Anyway. These masts and the guns were glued to the ship leaving me to get on with the railing around the structures and the edge of the deck. I initially tried to glue with white glue, but this wasn't working so well, so
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out came the superglue. I had 4 bottles of superglue, of which three were old and took way to long to set. The last bottle set quick enough for my liking and so the railing was then glued in place.
Next on the list are the little boats that will sit in the middle section of the ship.
This will have to wait till next time.
POLISH SPECIAL FORCES – BY KAROL WICINSKI
Karol has written a number of articles on the Polish Special Forces for this magazine which will be serialised over the next few issues.
ODDZIALY SPECJALNE ZANDARMERII WOJSKOWEJ (MP SPECIAL UNITS) 2004‐
The OSZW is formed into three battalions. Similar to most worlds’ Military Police units, OSZW has police characteristics, but is able to perform as military unit. OSZW has been organized to take over security duties on deployments, from regular combat units. Specialization in security duty does not mean being passive, all soldiers are trained in offensive actions. Some elements of OSZW are highly skilled SWAT units, equipped in latest weapons and trained to the highest standards. Although the unit is very young, its soldiers have served in many countries on at least three continents. Confirmation of their high skill level is official request from USMC FAST commander for the unit to train alongside OSZW operators in Afghanistan.
OSZW is exceptional in Polish Army. Since formation the OSZW has been equipped only with new equipment. The new, short Beryl (deeply
modified AK‐74), Glocks, latest personal webbing, Land Rovers and Zbiks marks them out in the Polish Armed Forces. The exception of this is the SWAT unit, which has all latest and best equipment for this kind of unit.
At the beginning of this year Special Forces Command revealed that another special forces unit will be formed. It will be Polish equivalent of American Ranger Regiment and it will be based on OSZW.
The figure shows an operator from the SWAT unit in standard gear for operations in a urban area. I added few things, mainly to the weapons, such as the leash for pistol and a reflective sight on MP5. I tried to shade different areas with different colours. The leather boots are shiny, overall the figure is dry brushed with grey with the vest brushed with dark blue. All in all very quick build.
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ST GEORGE’S COMPETITION ENTRY PART 2 BY RUSSELL EDEN
With the chassis done it was onto the fighting compartment. With 90% of the clean‐up done beforehand it went together easily although the placement of interior items can be fun due to there being no locating pins and only photos in the instructions. Oh and not forgetting how quickly super glue dries when you need to re‐position something, funny as when I have a part in the right place it always takes ages to bond….. Or is this just me?
The walls to the compartment are very thin which gives it scale but a fragility that means you have to be very careful with it. I almost cracked it several times. The rear door was poorly moulded and needed filing with my trusty black Loctite. Once assembled and dried it was mounted to the chassis.
Ok, this was all going well for a Sunday afternoon so I built up the cab next –as it is in flat pack form it takes a bit of care to line everything up but the detail is stunning.
It’s at this point the instructions request that if the rear compartment isn’t parallel with the ground you cut into the chassis rails with a razor saw, bent and glue them until it is parallel – eek! As ever my razor saw remained elusive when I need it most; I must buy some more; and to save me doing this I came up with a cunning plan. I mounted the cab with my black Loctite, liberally coating the underside mounting points, held it firmly as to bend the rails into position and sprayed activator on the glue to rapidly harden it, apart from
If you look closely you can see the shadow of the internal parts on the wall of the compartment.
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needing a third hand this worked a treat – I was expecting it to go ping and launch the cab across the lounge but it’s still in one piece – phew!
LOOKING LIKE A HALF TRACK AT LAST
Front mudguards next. Again, with clean up already done they fitted a treat BUT, for those of you who remember my last article – remember the pair of front leaf springs I mounted? Well, as I had a mismatched pair I got slightly confused and had mounted them too far back, which only became apparent with the mudguards in place – oops!
Before After
It was then I actually found my razor saw, thankfully, and had to carefully cut the front axle and suspension off the chassis and move it forward – no wonder I had to cut the drive shaft down. Once corrected, this concluded the main part of the build. I was going to leave the gun until later – I’d had my fill of resin for a while.
The following weekend I primered the half‐track and got all my research material together to work out a colour scheme.
With very little information online it was very difficult to work out colour to paint the interior – the 2 1/35 build articles I found on the net had different coloured interiors – one green and one yellow. After a bit of
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pondering I worked out a theory – we, the British, got the halftracks from the US and these would have been painted overall olive drab in colour. We then repainted them in camo for Italy but would we have repainted the interior? I think not – It wouldn’t make sense as you’d have to strip everything out which would have very time consuming. With that worked out I sprayed the interior and track drive train (my reference photos show that these didn’t get repainted either) olive drab. I could be completely wrong but without any reference photos I went for it. With a black ink wash and dry brushing session done the interior looked very impressive, if a bit boring in just green! For a dash of colour I painted the seats brown and the shell ends brass. Once dry I masked it all off with Selotape – the only thing at hand after misplacing Tascha’s masking tape – oops! I bought a new roll and guess what – Found the missing roll – typical! The exterior was sprayed desert yellow and left to dry.
GREEN AND SAND COLOURED
Once dry I examined a useful bit of reference on the green camo colour used and mixed some black into a British dark green to get a nice dark colour. This was hand painted on. A lot of the British camo colour was hand painted according to my reference materials – maybe we didn’t have enough spray guns to go round…?
With the camo in place I gave the exterior successively darker in washes to bring out the detail and streak the vertical surfaces and then I dry brushed it with my trusty Bleached Bone paint.
That’s it for this month. Next month – decals and the gun….
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ELECTRIFYING A TSR 2! BY RICHARD STEWART
This as you ‘regular readers’ will know is my second TSR 2 slightly smaller than the last, now in 1/72 scale which I purchased while at the Yeovilton model show
One of the things I want to do with this kit is to light up the cockpit using fibre optic rods that our pet cat (Bertie) had managed to remove from our Christmas tree a couple of years ago. (If I had done it the wife would have killed me! But Bertie has that cute look of innocence so gets away with it!)
I purchased an Eduard cockpit set and drilled out tiny holes in the main instrument and side panels where lights would have been and fed through the rod, fixing with a dab of super glue. The rod was then fed back to a ‘light box’ where I made a simple circuit incorporating an LED which provides ample light for illumination.
The one thing I forgot was the size, if this had been a 1/48 scale aircraft, fitment of this would have been far less of a hassle as the fibre optics had to bend tightly around on itself to get to the light box and in doing so quite a few fibre optic rods broke (just put it down to a lesson learnt!). For the front cockpit I put all the lighting in the nose which again was very tight but the end result looks fine, providing it can be seen when all finished!
FITTING IT ALL IN!
Talk about tight! It felt like me fitting into a pair of my jeans I last wore in the eighties! After a long while thinning the internal fuselage the half’s finally came together. Once the glue had dried it was time to get the filler out!
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After an age of sanding the plane stated to sport an aerodynamic look again. I fitted the original pilot’s canopy but used the Eduard acetate ones that came with the cockpit set for the rear navigators and front screen.
Like the 1/48 version I built, this one needed a little trimming and dry fitting around the front screen to get it to fit properly and once that was done I used the Eduard mask set for the windows. Also to ensure the transparencies would be there for good and after initially fitted the canopies with white glue I used super glue which is very effective in doing this providing the bits you want to see through are correctly masked.
NOW THE REAR SECTION
As I wanted this plane to be in flight I scoured the web and obtained some plastic rods from the Clear Plastic
Tube Company (http://clearplastictube.co.uk), this was to insert up the exhausts using thick plastic card to support the rods internally. This time I used two LEDs from a battery operated cupboard light so when lit, light would diffuse down the rods so as to appear that the engines are ‘turning and burning’
Next on the list after getting some ideas from Tony is to paint matt varnish rings around the rods nearest the engine outlets which when lit will appear (hopefully) to look like shock waves.
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One good point in having the aircraft in flight is that no undercarriage is needed so a lot of time is saved in construction and on this aircraft the main gear ‘squat’ is too wide anyway.
So far so good, Till next time
Happy Modelling
TAIL OF TWO SPITTIES…..
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...... “
I suspect none of my written pieces will have nearly as much impact as those of Charles Dickens. His version of “A tale of two cities” was published over 32 issues of his club magazine during 1859 and downloaded by over 200,000,000 subscribers. I’ll be pleased just to get 2,000,000 reading mine!
Let me introduce the two main characters. The youngest is the MkIXc from the Airfix renaissance period. She looks true and faithful, everything fits in place just as it should and when she is altogether is a most evocative and pretty young thing from all angles. Whilst she is cheap and plastic, her bohemian CMR MkXII cousin is of resin and is expensive, awkward, twisted, bent out of shape and pockmarked. However, we shall see in the end that she turns out very nice despite having only a passing resemblance to a Spitfire.
Bit parts are from Aires and Eduard, purchased cheap at a model show as items unwanted and discarded by their owner. I think this is the first Aires set I have used in 1/72nd and what a little gem it turned out to be. The only other item I purchased was an alternative set of decals from Hannants. I also unwittingly bought three drum sets from a music store in Paris, a new wardrobe of clothes from an outfitter in St Malo and some car parts from somewhere else, none of which were delivered to me. Just as well the Hannants credit card fraud warning came when it did and I cancelled my card as a precautionary measure as people were freely using it right up to the time the bank cancelled it. After a visit to the local Gendarmerie to report the theft and a mere 2 months and 6 visits to bang the desks at the bank the money was returned to my account, such is the efficiency of the French banking system.
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Anyway, I digress. Where was I? Oh yes – I am supposed to writing about building a couple of Spitfires. Here we go.....
AIRFIX 1/72 SPITFIRE MK IXC.
I reviewed the kit in the January 2010 issue of Romsey Modeller. At the time I made many observations of things to correct on the kit during the build. It is a shame I didn’t read my own review, as I completely forgot about them! If you are going to build this kit yourself then do take a look at the review, as there is too much to include in this already overlong article !
[2] Airfix kit A02065 in 1/72nd scale of the Spitfire MkIXc comes smartly packaged and presented. A quality job and great value for money at the same time.
The Aires set 7011 I used with the Airfix kit is supposed to be for a MkXIV, but with my aging eyesight I would be hard put to spot the difference to a IX. It comprises cockpit sides, floor and seat in resin and a bunch of other bits in photoetch [3]. Instruments come as an acetate film for sandwiching between the instrument
panel pe – conventional, simple, neat and effective.
The interior structure in the cockpit area of the fuselage halves was pared away by knife and then the fuselage wall reduced in thickness using wet n dry paper (used wet). This was a long job [4]. I intended to depict the
[3] Aires parts used for detailing the interior of the Airfix kit.
[4] Resin side walls glued into place. Note these have been cut through for one of the PE frames to be placed.
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side access panel folded down, so I scored through the plastic using the back edge of an X‐Acto blade until it was close to breaking free, then left it in place until painting was completed.
The cockpit floor comes as a very nice moulding with the curvature of the fuselage inside included – a feature not often seen in detailing sets. The Aires set also includes a nice resin seat (far better than the resin one in the XII kit which I consigned to the spares box).
The internal areas were painted Humbrol HD1 Aircraft Grey‐Green + H97 Eggshell + H34 white and shaded with an oil paint mix of chrome green + violet blue. The seat was undercoated in WEM Corticene brown and shaded with oils [5]. The lap belts were added at this stage, but were not bent to shape or painted until late in the build.
[5] Interior details painted up ready for assembly. Notice use of shade. Actually, the rear of the fuselage from behind the seat mounting frame should be in natural aluminium.
I suggest you assemble the two halves as follows. Dry fit them together with all the photoetch and resin pieces in place. Get everything correctly lined up. Tack the instrument panel and seat frame into place against one fuselage side with a spot of cyano at the top end (not the end with the wing opening). The reason is that the bottom end will need wedging open to get a good fit at the wing roots and if you have the photoetch fully glued in place it will get messed up when you prise the fuselage halves open (ask me how I know!). Then proceed to glue the two halves together.
The trailing edges of the lower wing were thinned to eliminate a raised join when the upper parts are glued into place. When assembled the wings look really good and capture the inspired work of R J Mitchell (wheras those of the CMR XII may have been inspired by Jewson’s timber merchants, if inspired at all). Note there are two shell casing chutes by the cannon, the slot in the outer one should be closed off.
[6] Progress so far. Cockpit floor left off until fuselage halves spread to obtain good fit with wings.
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Incidentally, I posted an idea on BritModeller for a way to fill the open main undercarriage bay. Take the lower wing half and run a sausage of Milliput (or your favourite brand of epoxy putty) around the circumference of the opening. Place a square of Clingfilm on top of this. Now position the wing upper parts and firm them into place, squeezing the sausage in the process. You could trim away some of the excess from the wheel well, but do leave some residue. Wait for it to harden off then remove the wing uppers and peel away the Clingfilm. Use abrasive paper wrapped around an X‐Acto handle to sand the well neatly. You can then join the upper to lower pieces and not have any gap in the roof of the wheel well. It’s based on the technique I use for assembling badly fitting figurines, but I’ve not tried it on this scale before. If you give it a try then please let me know how you get on !
As mentioned just now, the fuselage was too narrow for the wings and left a wide gap. My immediate reaction was to think the kit was poor, but when I added a pair of wedges cut from clear sprue I found the fit to be excellent [7]. There is quite a load on the fuselage joint when you do this, so make sure the joint is strong and fully set, otherwise your fuselage will unzip along the bottom.
[7] Transparent sprue spreaders had ends cut at an angle to act as wedges which were adjusted until the right amount of spread was obtained. A drop of glue then set them into position.
The resin floor section was sanded down in height so as not to interfere with the wing before being superglued into place centrally between the fuselage halves.
I had to place a small shim of plasticard at the leading edge join to get a good alignment between the wing and fuselage. To attach the wing, I glued the front cowl section first and let this set before teasing the rear end into place and gluing that. Once secured front and back, I ran some liquid cement along the root joint. The result looked pretty good [8].
[8] Wing and tail in place. Generally a good fit
The bulges over the wheel wells were sanded flat, as these were a later modification when wider tyred wheels were fitted. I also filled in some of the panel lines above and below the wing using cyanoacrylate glue. I have two sets of drawings and they do not always agree on where panel lines are located, so I referred to photos to check before making the changes.
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Photos [8] also show a small strip of plasticard glued beneath the instrument panel coaming. This was for mounting the gun sight.
The oil coolers / radiators beneath the wing had grilles and damper added from an Eduard pe set.
We’ll leave the Airfix kit for now and bring the CMR one to the same stage of construction......
CMR 1/72 SPITFIRE MKXII.
Whilst the kit comes reasonably well packaged, I was disappointed when I looked at the parts inside. The cockpit interior was not overly convincing and many parts were not fully moulded. I therefore used many parts from Eduard set 72‐222 for the Hasegawa Spitfire Mk VIII, but retained the kit’s moulded‐on detail on the cockpit sides.
The insides of the fuselage were painted as described as for the MkIXc.
[9] CMR154 MK XII comes in an end opening box with a very nice profile of ED‐D on top. The parts in cream coloured resin are sealed in plastic with the main parts separated to avoid contact.
The decals and guide provide markings for four options, all of 41 Sqdn in ocean grey and dark green over medium sea grey: EB‐B MB882 flown by Flt Lt Donald Smith from Friston in April 1944, EB‐D MB858 based at Westhamptnett in late 1943 (the subject I chose because it has the spoked main wheels and retractable tail wheel), EB‐H MB794 in 1943 and EB‐V EN237 flown by Sqdn Ldr Thomas Neil, OC 41 Sqdn at Hawking in Spring 1943.
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[10] Photoetched parts from the Eduard set replaced some resin components of the CMR kit. Some deep grooves were cut into the resin fuselage halves to accept the photoetch. Many trial runs were needed to get the seat set at the right height in the fuselage before finally cementing into place.
The fuselage halves did not line up well and were bent and corkscrewed. I glued them in stages and checked as I went, but still I ended up with the fin kicked over to one side and the wing roots at differing heights. I resorted to brute force to untwist the fuselage and – despite the sound of superglued joints cracking undone – managed to correct the problem a little.
The wing comes as a single plank. The wing and fuselage were fettled to get the best fit before supergluing into place. Although spreaders were pressed into place to widen the fuselage, I was still left with wide gaps to fill.
[11] Fuselage halves joined together and wing added. Much filling and sanding was needed to get a decent result.
The gaps in the wing and fuselage were filled with an epoxy putty mix of 50% Duro & 50% Magic Sculp. “Essence F” was used as a release agent for fingers and tools and to smooth the surface. Essence F is a solvent, much like white spirit, which is available in French DIY stores and used as a cheap alternative to Humbrol thinners. A thin sausage of the epoxy mix was placed over the gap to be filled and pressed into place with a finger dipped in Essence F to stop the epoxy sticking to the finger. Once all was firmly in place, a chisel edged blade dipped in Essence F was laid on top of the wing and sliced through the epoxy to the fuselage and the excess putty peeled away. A dollop of putty was also placed under the fuselage to blend the curve of the cowling to the wing underside.
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The wing upper and lower mould halves did not match too well, leaving a ridge along the leading edge of the wing. The gun stubs made this difficult to get at, so I drilled some holes into them to mark their location on the wing. The stubs were then removed as the wing was sanded to shape. The cannons and adjacent caps were replaced with items turned from transparent sprue using a modelling lathe. Clear sprue was used because it is harder than the opaque plastic and easier to turn for long, slender items. I replaced those on the MkIXc as well, because they look incorrect for the “c” pattern wing.
The bulge over the wheel wells was sanded away as it had been for the MkIXc.
The XII has the earlier pattern of oval shaped oil cooler beneath the port wing. The kit part needed a lot of effort to make it look respectable.
The rudder was a bad fit to the fin and I needed to add some plastic strip up the hinge post and along the top of the fin, sanding this back to size until the rudder lined up correctly. The tailplanes also needed fettling to obtain a good fit. Without correction they would angle back by a large amount, so they were trimmed, glued and filled so the elevator hinge line ran perpendicular to the fuselage axis.
The fabric texture effect on the elevators is probably the worst you will see on a kit.
Both kits are now at the same stage and ready for the windscreens to be added. I chose to fit these before painting because I usually make such a hash of the join line if I do it afterwards. The Airfix canopy is not at all good and is moulded quite thickly – it would be difficult to slice through to separate the hood from the windscreen. Fortunately, the CMR kit came with two vacuum formed canopies and so I used them instead. It was a slow and delicate task slicing and dicing these, but I do not have that much experience of using them and maybe they could be done faster by those with more practice. I had purchased some spares from Squadron (item 9108) just in case they were needed.
So with the windscreens cut out, I tidied around the instrument coamings and attached the gun sights. I attached the windscreens using superglue. The join was tidied by the application of a little Magic‐Sculp, smoothed to shape using a pointy tool dipped in Essence F.
I did not fit the rear section of hood, as it is not that visible when the main hood is pulled back and it makes the internal detail clearer to see.
[12] Cannons replaced by items turned on a lathe.
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[13] Both models ready for masking and painting.
Both airframes were now ready for masking and painting [13]. I did not bother to mask the wheel wells, electing to paint these in by hand later on (especially as I shall be gluing the models to a base fairly soon, so they will not get looked at) – so that left only the cockpits to mask off. This was done with moistened tissue paper balls gently eased into place followed by a thinned coat of PVA glue to stiffen the outside layer. When dry, I tried “502 Abteilung” Liquid Mask over the windscreen, leaving the Magic‐Sculp edging uncovered for painting. This seems quite a good masking solution, though it still has the annoying problem of other latex masks of making a right mess of the brush applicator. It doesn’t matter how many times you dip your brush into water to try and keep it clean, because by the time you are done the brush is caked in the stuff. And talking of a right mess, whilst it is nice that the mask comes in a generously sized 75 ml container, it does mean an awful lot of it gets spilled when you knock the bottle over. It is quite fluid as well, and will find its way into all the nooks and crannies of fake period French furniture. I had to force myself to let the stuff dry, rather than to try and wipe it away. It then peeled away in large stretchy lumps – no questions to face from an irate French landlady after all – phew!
I haven’t mentioned the detail pieces yet. The undercarriage leg and door of the Airfix kit are moulded as one, complete with scissors link on the oleo that should be trimmed away as it is a post‐war addition (not that I did with my kit). The resin legs of the CMR kit needed some fiddling with and I drilled out the end and inserted some wire for a stronger join to the airframe. The resin undercarriage doors were “short shot” and unusable, so again I turned to the trusty Eduard photoetch.
The wheels were fixed to the ends of cocktail sticks to make handling easier during painting. As always, it is a good idea to check the fit of the wheels onto the legs and make any corrections before applying paint.
The propeller blades were cleaned up, but left on their sprue / moulding block for painting. The Airfix spinner comes as two parts. These were checked for fit and tacked in place (a mark on the interior surfaces to show their correct orientation). I had made a remark in the review of the Airfix kit that the spinner may be a tad too pointed. You may want to check when you do yours, cos I forgot to check it myself! The CMR spinner is a single piece. These were attached to a piece of sprue for painting, with a mark to show the upward facing surface to aid in painting light and shade.
This seems to be a convenient place to pause , the final part of this build will appear next month…..
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CLUB DIARY
April 20th Club Night
May 18th St Georges Competition May 22nd Hendon Show
June 15th Club Night June 4th Salisbury Show
July 20th Tamiya Competition
August 17th Club Night
September 21st Club Night
September 4th
September 17th
September 22nd
Build a Model in a Day
Farnborough Show
Airfix Visit
October 19th Club Night TBA Yeovilton Autumn Show
November 16th Annual Competition
December 21st Xmas Night
Next Meeting: Wednesday April 20th (8pm to 10pm)
Ampfield Village Hall Morleys Lane Romsey Hampshire SO51 9BJ
Thank you to this month’s contributors to this publication
Paul Adams Russell Eden Dale Koppi Karol Wicinski
Tony Adams Steve Edwards Pat Camp Richard Stewart
CONTACT INFO
Web Site wwww.romseymodellers.co.uk
Editor Tony Adams Tel: 01794 519153 email: [email protected] Competitions Paul Adams Tel: 02380 398858 Treasurer Steve Edwards