IPMS Clacton: March 2021 Virtual Meeting

Well, we are still where we are. Hopefully, May will be the first real meeting of the year, but who knows?

Anyway, we have just six contributors today so, let's get on with it.

Bill Banks

Bill always gives nice little details about the model. This time it is a SEAC Chance Vought Corsair in the nice camo finish. he says:

"Chance Vought Corsair F4U -1. Otaki kit 1:48 scale. An old kit which research puts at early 70s. A simple kit with few parts. All went together well. Panel lines are very faint. The eagle -eyed amongst you will note the incorrect roundels. The kit items fell apart. The livery is early FAA colours later in the Pacific red was removed and finished in dark blue all over. Had no dark blue. A very interesting aircraft. Fitted with 18 cylinder Pratt and Witney radial which required a large propeller . This I scaled at 10 ft radius. Consequently the straight wing prototype had tall undercarriage legs with resultant excessive bounce. The gull wing reduced this together with leg valves. However there were now wing stall problems. These were designed out. The USN would not accept the aircraft for carrier use. The FAA modified the plane for carrier use. The seat was raised 7 inches with a redesigned cockpit cover and covers over vents which diverted oil spray away from the canopy to the fuselage sides.Carrier landing procedure was via a shallow LH turn which enabled the pilot to see over the gull V. USN accepted all this and it became a very successful carrier aircraft. The heavy 5 ton aircraft played havoc with arrester wires. Production of the Hellcat put paid to Convair carrier use. US carrier based losses are interesting. Aerial combat 189.Ground/ship fire 349. Operational losses combat 230. Non combat 692. Damaged on ship/ground 164. The RN received 2012 aircraft. Serving on HMS Victorious, Victor, Formidable, Colossus, Vengeance, Venerable and others. 8 inches was cut off folding wings to fit deck heights.. Fying was not impaired. At the end of the Pacific war unaffordable lease lend aircraft were dumped off the coast of Australia. One of the few aircraft still produced after the war. On line, there are good shots of museum examples and carrier action."

John Ovenden

Panzer Mk 3 Aust L from Ryfield pleased with finish but slightly over-engineered so I wouldn't buy again i'm afraid. Here it is in black and white.

John Rose

John has sent his usual collection of interesting items, including a huge Tiger tank!

"The last picture, surprisingly, has a couple of shermans waiting for the shop to open. I had an overwhelming desire to build a marines sherman in the Pacific theatre. Trouble when you start researching - I've ended up building seven. Thank goodness for the spares box!!
And just to prove I'm not one dimensional, there's a couple of oddities too."

Jim Smetherham

"Attached is another model for the table

Model : US Army RQ-7B UAV
Make : Academy
Scale: 1:36
Paints: hand painted using humbrol and Tamiya
Other: very small and expensive for what it is "

Model : Mustang p-51k with 4.5 inch rocket launcher
Make : Dragon
Scale: 1:32
Paints: airbrushed using Vallejo acrylic and some brush painting using extracolor.

Model : J-11 People’s Liberation Army (chinese)Air Force. Ser. 11137
Make : Hasagawa. Special edition of Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker with alterations for PLA J-11
Scale: 1:48
Paints: airbrush with Vallejo model air and brush painted with mr Hobby
Other: in box etched brass included.

Peter Terry

"This month I have been working on the new Airfix Spitfire Vc and what a gem of a kit it is. It goes together superbly with a good choice of marks - American and South African. I went for the latter having a small collection of Mediterranean second world war aircraft. In fact, I purchased two kits one down and one to go but I have some Xtradecals sheet marking to use on that one. Speaking recently with the Brotherhood Hall caretakers, we could restart meeting from May on a regular basis. I will confirm to members regarding this as I get more information."

David Pennington

"I have gone for a 54mm figure this month. I haven't done one this size for a long while and was concerned that it might be a bit small. However, I persevered and it came out well, I think. The model is a Hidalgo-Beneito metal moulding. It is listed as 'British Soldier, Two Versions, Afghanistan 1879, Ginnis 1885'. I chose the option of a British soldier in the Mahdist War in Sudan in 1885. It is a very relaxed pose with his jacket off and drinking from his water bottle. I didn't know about the battle of Ginnis but Wikipedia has an article if you are interested"