February 2021

 I have to admit that I can't think of a strapline for this month. I am getting a bit jaded with all of this. The integration between members is lost so I find it hard to generate anything interesting on my own. Still, maybe March or April (2025??? - grin).

No turntable this month as, when I got it out of the box, it seems that it was turned on and thus the batteries had run down. Nowadays, we all have lots of AA and. AAA but not any others and this takes C type and I don't have any. I am sure that Amazon will supply some but not in time for this blog.

So, lets get started. 

Bill Banks

Bill is still working through the back catalogues of the big names.

"Kit Airfix HO OO scale  I calculate this to be 1:763.This kit form will be familiar to club members.It is dated 1973. Although small there was plenty of detail and made up an interesting model.Derived from the M2 half track car.15000 standard were produced and 38000 variants by Diamond T White Motors and Autocar. International Harvester produced 2000 of their own variant for Lease Lend.My army unit had one of these. The tracks were moulded rubber with steel wire reinforcement and metal track guides. The armour was 5 to 10mm.Used world wide"

"Sopwith Camel Kit Revel 1.72  A small model and in places fiddly.Managed to rig it in spite of the EZ cord being too thin. Introduced in 1917  and derived from the Sopwith Pup.Powered by a powerful rotary engine....the Bentley was150hp.The aircraft was difficult to fly as the engine produced a strong gyroscopic effect.Used to good effect by experienced pllots but many consequent losses due to inexperience. 90% of the aircraft weight was in the first 7 feet. There was no variable incidence tail -plane hence difficult take off.Overall in spite of this an effective aircraft.Some 5500 were built.Was used by NAS and even launched from under an Airship. Post 1918 was deployed in Russia fighting the bolshevic forces.Withdrawn 1920 and all aircraft in Russia destroyed. The aircraft was perpetuated in fiction by Captain W E Johns.The first of 96 novels with his character Biggles...Bigglesworth was The Camels Are Coming.My son and I are avid fans."

David Pennington

"I was given this figurine by an old friend, Mark,  from SBX days. It is a Mitches Models 120mm moulding of Guy Gibson. Mark had put the figure together but hadn't started the painting so that is all mine. It is a lovely moulding and extremely easy to paint. I had to search for a decent match for the uniform. The photo makes it look a bit glossy but, in actual fact, it is nicely matt. I am very pleased with it."

John Ovenden

"I assume there is a meeting (virtually) this Thursday so here are my entries.

Revell 1/35 Panzer IV aust H with skirts. Finished in tri colour cammo finish with faded winter wash over. Not bad to put together but the skirt brackets didn't line up!! Tamiya 1/35 Panzer IV audt F finished in overall sand yellow with Nato Green cammo finish and three man crew. Extra tracks fitted for protection. As ever with Tamiya no real problems putting together, this is an old kit but stiil a good build."

Peter Carlo

"Two photos of the V22 osprey. This is the Italery kit and as such is not 100 percent accurate.
It goes together quite well but needs some extra plastic tabs along the length of the fuselage. Very little filler is needed until you get to the props as these need a fair amount on the under side and if you drop the flaps a fair bit more is needed. Also needed is nose weight which is not mentioned in the kit. It is quite a size so leaving the props free to remove is a good idea. Decals are by Xtradecal, which are really good but complex. I needed to leave the engines and props off until the very end. Cutting the flaps out needed the wing to be assembled first and then flap tracks and spars had to be added allowing adhesive to set over night before gluing on the flaps in lowered position. Having said all of the above it turned out quite nice."

Peter Terry

"Here goes for the February Blog, Looks as if we will not be able to meet till April hope every one is safe and well. This month i have the Airfix Classic Vintage re release of there 1/72 scale Henschel Hs 123A-1 ground attack aircraft, This is a thirty eight part kit that builds well and the mouldings are as good as they were when first released in nineteen seventy six. I selected a scheme from a Xtradecal sheet for a post war Spanish version all others on the sheet were for World War two schemes mostly Russian front versions.

This being one biplane that did not need rigging and i left the top wing of to last which made the painting and decaling a little easier all in all a very enjoyable build."

Jim Smetherham

Model : Gloster Javelin FAW.9/9R

Make : Airfix

Scale: 1:48

Paints: airbrushed using Vallejo acrylic paints apart from undercarriage armaments etc hand painted and the nose cone and tyres which are hand painted in  Xtracolour.

After market additions: Eduard etched brass cockpit detail and scale aircraft white metal landing gear

Decals: Xtradecal - XH 960 ‘V’ of 29 Squadron RAF RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. February 1965.

Camouflage mask: Humbrol Maskol

Model :-   Sukhoi  su 27 flanker with additional decals and paint scheme for PLA converting model to Chinese Peoples  Liberation Army J11 - W.I.P.

Make : Hasagawa special addition

Scale: 1:72

Paints: airbrushed using Vallejo acrylic primer 

After market additions: etched brass detail  supplied with kit

Decals: Hasagawa decals for PLA

John Rose

"This month I have concentrating on clearing the work bench. Some of these have been on the bench for about six months. Sometimes I get an idea and follow it until I'm bored with it an start another. Some get to the painting/ decal stage and I get bored.

So, from the left, rear Italeri Sherman B32 recovery vehicle. However, its a fantasy build. Although the US marines had the exhaust stacks as shown, the rest is my imagination and the spares box. It might have been like this if the war progressed beyond '45

Next is a dragon M4  used on Utah beach at Normandy OOB, apart from wading stacks from the spares box. 

Next ,Takom M3 Lee CDL. OOB,needs tracks done.

Next, Tamiya M4A3 105 OOB with a few modifications

Next, Tamiya M4A3. At the moment,  l'm looking for a project - either a decal change or something more drastic! 

Next  Tamiya M4A3.  I started this about a year ago and forgot what its finally end as. It has thickend cheek armour and the loading hatch has been welded shut. However, I can't find the reference i had, which is a real bugger!

Front, left to right. 

8ton halftrack, Hobby boss(I think) 

This took no time to build until the indy tracks. I hate indy tracks. Managed to invent new swear words to describe the build of these spawn of satan.

But it looks alright now. It will be in a diorama timing the 88 gun on the far right.

The one in the middle? Ah, thats a secret.....!"

That's All

Keep the models flowing so that we can have interesting blogs every month.

David

Seven contributions for January 2021

 Well, we are still locked down with no hope of a meeting until March, probably. As it is, we have seven member's contributions to the virtual table.

I like to start the blog with a feature model but, as I don't have access to anyone else's models, you will have to put up with another one of mine.

This is my build of the recently released Tamiya 1/48th scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I.

My problem with the kit is one of expectation. If you check out YouTube, there are a lot of videos saying how great the kit is and how the model can be built to a fantastic level of quality. Ha! I find such talk to be quite intimidating and then struggle to meet what I see as the required finish. I wanted to put the radio aerial on and had some problems doing that but got it made using my old reel of Aeroclub stretchy thread. The thread

 is getting quite old now and breaks quite easily. I thought that I had done quite well and you may agree if you watch the video or check out the main image.

However, I was quite pleased with the cockpit and determined to show what I had done. That was until I saw the image in close up. Well, here it is and you can see what I mean - ugh!

On to the rest of the table.

Peter Terry

Peter says "Sorry i am a bit behind, Two 1/72 scale Airfix Bf109s hand painted with kit decals and one version with Teck Mod decals figure comes from the Prieser range of Luftwaffe figure sets. Looks as if we will have to run the blog for February ? Peter"

Bill Banks

"Hi David hope you and yours are fit and well, My latest project,

The aircraft is a WW1 French designed Nieuport Mk 16 nicknamed Bebe.  Baby.

Designed by the brothers Nieuport one of whom died testing this widely used aircraft including the RFC. 

Constructed entirely of wood and linen,Very light and easy to control. It had a 110 HP le Rhone 9 cylinder rotary engine and could fly at 165 Mph.They were constructed in 4 factories in Russia. The rockets are for destroying balloons.The model is in the colours of the Imperial Russian Air Service founded 1912,19th Corps Aviation Detachment 1st Battalion Aviation Group 1916.

The kit is a 1:48 SMER Czech,. This is the first model I have rigged. The EZ line was too thin which was like knitting cobwebs. You can just see the rigging in the photo.

A  Russian Ace flying this machine type was Alexander Kazakov, he was credited with 35 kills. He had more but the Russians only credited those that fell on Russian soil. With the advent of the Russian revolution he flew for the Whites. In 1918 he joined the RAF with the rank of Major. At an air show in 1919 he crashed in a Sopwith Pup, He was considered to have committed suicide."

John Rose

"Hi David

Just the one this month.

Tamiya 1/35 Panzer lll. Tracks, decals and weathering to finish off.

John Rose"

John Ovendon

John tells me "This is the 1/35 GMC M10 Tank Destroyer from AIrfix/Acadamy.

Mounting a 3" 76.2mm gun in fully rotating turret it served from April 1942 till the end of

the war although production ceased in December 1943."

Jim Smetherham

Jim has provided some more work in progress images of the Airfix 1/48th Gloster Javelin that he is building.

Peter Carlo

Peter has provided I'm ages of two Su-27 Flankers. He says:

"Hi David second model is a 1/48 su27flanker hobby boss kit . This looks a simple kit when you open the box but the deeper you go, the more complex it gets. The cockpit is very good just the PE straps needing care. Fit is good all over very little filler needed.

There are several paint schemes but l found this one on the net and with some spare decals was able to make it up. Painting it was complex to say the least as it is an all over scheme seemed like a mile of masking tape. I seem to have forgotten to mention that this is a Far East winter scheme.

Cheers Peter"

Sum Up

A nice selection of models and some interesting comments. Not the same as being there, though, is it? Never mind, we will all be back to normal soon. I have had my first vaccination so I am on my way. I hope that the rest of you are all doing well and getting through this by getting lots of modelling done. Keep the images coming.

It's our Christmas meeting but without the mince pies

 Well, we normally get together with everyone brining some goodies to eat. Not this year. We all had to stay at home. However, the proceedings were lightened by a small competition (of which more later).

There were only four contributors to the table this month. First up, though, is our featured model, which, again, has to be on of mine as I don't have access to other's models.

Featured Model

The Table

This model is one of mine. It was an "interesting" build for a few reasons. First off, the main details are as follows: a Hobby 2000 kit (which means ex-Hasegawa) but with their own decals. Given my recent showing of my trip to the USS Intrepid, I chose this because one set of decals was for the Valions on that boat.

Overall, the kit went together very easily and I was most impressed with the fit - not quite Tamiya click and stay but close. The only trouble I had was with a couple of parts that go in under the air intakes. I couldn't see how these would fit, no matter which way round I tried them, so I just cut them a bit and slid them in. Now, what went wrong? I managed to move the upper wing decal after I had applied MicroSol and the decal, of course, just disintegrated. Fortunately, Hannants Xtradecal have a sheet of exactly this aircraft so I was able to recover. Along the way, I found two fairly serious errors, one of which was recoverable. The recoverable one was that I had put the Valions logo on facing backwards. As there was a version on the Xtradecal sheet, that was easily solved. The non-recoverable error was the paint job. When halfway through, I thought that I had made a mistake in using "Dark Compass Grey" instead of "Dark Ghost Grey". In fact, the error was bigger than that as I should have been using "Light Ghost Grey". Never mind. It is done and looks ok.

Next up was Peter Terry who sent me a text saying "Please find attached my contribution for the December blog. The Airfix SAM Missile kit now long out of production the mould tool now long lost Airfix do not know what happened to it so although a rarity i made it for the enjoyment completed as a North Viet Nam missile battery at the height "

John Ovenden sent in his contributions as follows: " here is my input for virtual club table

all 1/35

Tamya Archer self propelled gun and crew on a Great North roads diorama

base (street corner) and an Airfix / Academy Hetzer tank destroyer early version on the same base.

Both easy builds with few problems.

Last, John Rose sent in a couple of "work in progress" builds as, I think, he has been away for much of the previous month. His contributions are, in his words:

"Image 1. 1/35th Sherman m32 recovery vehicle.  I wanted an M32  that was a bit different,  so I took an Italeri one and, using references online, modified with sheet styrene and odds and ends from the spares box.  Still a WIP and will end as a late war USMC version. 

Image 2. OOB Tamiya 1/20th Ferrari 312. Just needs seat belts and decals.

On the bench - x2 Shermans used in the Trinity test area. To be continued...."

The competition:

We had 10 votes for the various contributors. Up until late, it was looking difficult with three entries all with two votes but then a final, casting, vote came in leaving John Ovenden as the winner. He sent me the following:

"What a nice surprise. Please pass on my thanks to those who voted for me

Merry Christmas to all

JohnO"

The Web Site

I have an apology to make regarding the club web site - well two in fact. Firstly, some web browsers are starting to try and block web sites that don't use the super secure "HTTPS". This was originally created for securing credit card transactions as the S in the title means that all data being exchanged is encrypted. It also means that the owner of the site has been verified.

However, so browsers are now extending this to every site on the spurious notion that every owner has to be verified. We have no need for verification as there is no two-way interaction involced in browsing club information, I see no need to involve the club in extra costs and no need for me to spend the extra time setting this up, which (as I have done this before for my shop web site)  can be an extended process. Most browsers allow you to override the block. If you have any difficulties, please contact me with the details and I will try and help.

Secondly, I build the website using a programming system called "Seaside". This is an addition to my normal programming environment. However, there is a bit of an issue in that the site freezes up around every 24 hours or so. I am in the process of trying to resolve this with my environment providers but, at the moment, I am unable to ensure that the site runs continuously. I do go in and restart it as often as I can think of it but there may be times when you can't access the site. If this is so, then please just try a few hours later.

January Meeting

You should have heard from Peter but, if not, here is what he said.

"Hi Guys,

I have had it confirmed that we can restart meetings as from the 7th of January at the Brotherhood Hall i will advise all member's if there is any change to this situation that you will need to know about. Please stay safe and have a good Christmas.

Regards Peter"

So, it looks like we will all be back together again, assuming that the tiers don't change. Looking forward to seeing you all again.

David