March 2021 Workbench competition

 Here we go. Here is the description:

1. Send in one or more photos of where you work to create your models and

2. Provide a nice description of how it works for you.

Prizes!

1st:  A Sphere Products paint stand comprising space for 20 Vallejo sized pots and 16 Tamiya sized pots plus 3 brushes.

2nd Place: A Sphere Products paint stand comprising space for 10 Vallejo sized pots and 8 Tamiya sized pots plus 3 brushes.

In the case of a tie, my wife will pack the winner out of a hat.

Voting. After each workstation image and description there is a link. Click on the link for your chosen workstation (each one has a dedicated link). This will open up a new e-mail with the correct address. All you have to do is click on the "Send" button (or whatever on your phone) and I will receive your vote. Easy. However, last time some of you got confused. Please do it this way as it makes it easier for me to count the votes.

Here we go:

Bill Banks

Bill says: "This is a view of my bench in its usual untidy state at the near end of a project. I then have a spring clean before starting the next.On the right is my paint cupboard. That certainly needs a sort out.However the view is good when.   one needs an eye rest. The bench is constructed from an mdf board clamped to  a camping table from caravanning days. Fine if one does not kick a leg as it collapses in style as it did for me two weeks ago..Smile.

Vote for Bill  - Click HERE

David Pennington

David says: "The top images shows my nice electric desk. This was supplied by the Open University. It can be raised or lowered to change the angle for my back and, more importantly, my neck when working. It is 2m wide and 1m deep so has space for my modelling, programming, New Zealand stamp collection and my concertina! The second image shows where I store my sewing machine (into patchwork) and, hidden, my compressor. The compressor is turned on and off using my Alexa system. The abundance of white cabling is part of my ongoing installation of Sky Q, where the two Sky wall connectors are, of course, buried right behind my desk!"

Vote for David - Click HERE

Jeff Adams

Jeff says: "Please find attached, some photos for the workbench, competition. Pictures: one and two, show my normal set up, in my workshop. Pictures: three and four, show my temporary, "winter" set up, in a spare bedroom. I will be moving my model activities back into the workshop soon, now that the weather is improving and hope to start airbrushing again, after a long absence."

Vote for Jeff - Click HERE

John Rose

John Says: "Here's my not so tidy workbench or the tank(sherman) assembly line as I like to call it. Chaotic? Nah, I know where most bits are. From here, the completed item goes to the paint shop. Sorry I meant shed."

Vote for John - Click HERE

Peter Carlo

Peter says: "Regarding the  photo of work space competition this is mine .It came about when I came home from hospital a couple of years ago because my wife said you had better use the table so that you are not doubled up and are sitting properly. Now I am getting the occasional complaint that I am encroaching on the whole of the table especially when a new kit box is opened and spreads down the table   Just for a few minutes honest!"

Vote for Peter - Click HERE

Peter Terry

Peter Says: "I like having every thing to hand no stretching or reaching and a place for the coffee mug a work board that is easy to remove with every thing in place so i can clean down the desk when necessary with a room that is compact and warm in winter."

Vote for Peter - Click HERE

That's all. Best of luck everyone - oh! As I am donating the prizes, I will not figure in the results, as far as prizes go. 

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"

Workdesk Competition

There are a nice set of entries so read the next blog entry for your chance to vote.

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