June 2021 - Getting back into the swing.

 A quietish meeting with just 9 models on the table - with three from one member - and just nine people. It was good to see Jeff  Adams back. Jeff admitted that lockdown seemed to go on for ever and, like me, found the club a means of keeping going.

Ok back to modelling.

Peter Terry

Peter brought along a Petlyakov PE-2 which he had weathered using pastels and washes. This was from a Bilik boxing of an original Airfix kit.

John Ovenden 

John brought along a very nice winter diorama consisting of parts from a few manufacturers. In the middle there was an Airfix/Academy Pzkfw. V Panther Ausf. G. This was complimented by a Great North Road resin street and building with the human interest added by some Mini-Art German tank crew in winter Garb.

David Pennington

I showed my little 1-72nd scale Airfix Hurricane. I had watched a TV program on building a two-seater hurricane which inspired me to have a go at this small scale kit. The kit went together alright and was finished in early war 1939 French camouflage - i.e. the brown and green uppers with the black and white underneath. One silly thing. I keep the tailpans off the model until it is finished as I find that this makes it easier to mask the underneath painting.  When I came to fit them, I found that I had painted them the wrong colours so I had to get the airbrush out and repaint the black and white!

Colin Ovens

Colin brought along a nice little 1-72nd scaleAirfix Mk.1F Blenheim painted for 29 squadron. I seem to remember that he brought this as a W.I.P. some time ago so it is nice to see it finished.

Jeff Adams

It was good to see Jeff back but he had a little surprise for us. Instead of one of his immaculate Shermans, he brought along a Tiger I diorama comprising of a Tamiya kit and Tamiya/Italeri accessories. The surprise was that this diorama was built in 1979! I won't divulge how old that makes Jeff - grin.

Bill Banks

Once again, Bill was accompanied by his son from the USA - David - who seems to enjoy our little meets - at least he gets well stuck into conversations. Bill brought along some work in progress. This was a Trimpeter 1-72nd scale model of a Vickers Wellington and Bill had some interesting things to tell us about the plane and its service. It seems to have been the only bomber that served from the outbreak of the 2nd world war through to the final days. We look forward to seeing this finished.

Peter Carlo

Peter loves his big models and we had three choice examples on the table. The first was a Kinetic, bare metal, FJ-2 Fury. This was spectacularly well done. At this scale, every imperfection shows but this had none.

Next up was a 1-48 F-101 Voodoo in RCAF marking. This was from a Kittyhawk kit. Peter says that, if you take care and clean every part up, these models go together beautifully so - patience everyone!

Lastly, for tonight, he showed us a Trumpeter F-106A Delta Dart. 

This had a highly detailed weapons bay. 

He made similar comments about this one. You really should click on the photos and look at these in a larger format and you will be amazed at the quality.

Conclusion

There are some brilliant modellers in our little club and we should all be proud of what goes on our table. It is good to be back together again and I look forward to seeing you all once again on the 1st July.

May 2021 - Our first real meeting in many months

 So, we are back together again. How nice it is to chat to someone outside of your own close family.

This month, we were please to welcome David Banks - Bill's son currently visiting from the USA.

There was an amazing 23 models on the table provided by six people. What a great start to normality.

Colin Ovens

Colin brought along some of his Cuban Air Force collection - namely, a MiG-15 UTI, a MiG-17 and a MiG-21. All were 1/72nd scale Airfix kits. In addition, he brought a Revell 1/72nd scale PBY-5A Catalina, which was a big of a pig to make, by all accounts.

Geoff Woods

Geoff brought three of his impeccably finished figurines. He uses acrylics for the base colours and details using oils. (I just can't get on with oils so I am always impressed with Geoff's finishing).

First up was a Frank Miniatures 75mm Hessen Kassel Jaeger.

Next up was  a Castle Miniatures Landsnecht mercenary c14th-15thC, also 75mm.

Lastly, for those old enough to remember the film, Geoff brought along a 1/10th scale bust of Trevor Howard in the guise of Lord Cardigan from the Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)

John Ovenden

I get easily confused, nowadays, so when John brought along four externally similar Sherman tanks, I lost track of which one was which. It seems that he was recreating Shermans from the film "Fury" from 2014 and starring Brad Pitt. Somewhere in here are models by Italeri, World of Tanks and Zvezda comprising M4A3 and M4E8 Sherman variants.

Intending to impress, he also brought along his amazing 1/32nd scale Hobby Boss N.A. B-25 Mitchell. We have seen this in the virtual meetings but nothing prepares you for seeing it in reality.

Peter Carlo

Peter brought along two very nice 1/48th scale aircraft. The first was a Kinetic Lockheed F-104G Starfighter in Lufwaffe markings. The second was a Hobby Boss Su-27 Flanker.  Peter has shown us his skill in recreating these complex (computer generated) markings. He tells us it is simple but we never believe him. It seems to require a huge amount of masking effort.

and the underneath!

He , like John, brought along a large model previously seen in the virtual meetings. This one is a 1/48th scale Italeri Osprey. Again, it is great to see it in the flesh.

Peter Terry

Peter is another one that overwhelmed me with models. His little (?) collection was 6 Messerschmitt bf-109e models from a variety of makers.

He tells us that he has plenty more of these coming!

Conclusion

Firstly, don't forget that you can see larger copies of the images by double clicking on each one. Click on the back arrow of the browser to get back to the blog. Secondly, I didn't do too well with recording the models (sorry) and my remote release stopped working so I had some trouble with photographing the models in my newly constructed light booth. I will endeavour to do better next month - we are back to meeting on the first Thursday - 3rd June. I look forward to seeing you all there.

April 2021 Virtual Meeting

 Well, we are still stuck but, after all the excitement of the Work Space competition (!!)  we are back to our regular meeting venue - our keyboards and screens. Still, it look possible that the May meeting could be face to face or, at least, mask to mask. Let's hope. Anyway, here we go for this month's table.

Bill Banks always provides lots of information about his models and this time he has sent us details of his build of a Matchbox Curtiss Helldiver. 

He says: "

Curtis Helldiver SB2C Matchbox kit 1.72 US Navy Divebomber Squadron VB 17 USS Bunker Hill July 1943.
Replaced the Dauntless in Us Navy Service. A heavy aircraft..over 7 tons...had difficult handling characteristics. Rejected by RAF...28 aircraft...never used in combat.Also rejected by Australian Air Force. A scathing report on the Helldiver production meant the end of aircraft production by Curtis. Despite difficulties the aircraft flew to the end of the Pacific War with high combat record. Many pilots grew to like it.

The box art shows open bomb doors. It would have looked good on the kit.It went together well with no problems. Moulded in self colour but I sprayed in the darkest blue I had.

Curtis still exists as Curtis Wright manufacturing aircraft parts and military items.Based in USA and Uk with several associated companies."

Next up is my 

Douglas Dauntless SBD-5 - 'Slow But Deadly'

"This is Hobby 2000 (ex Hasigawa) 1/72nd scale kit. Like all Hasegawa kits, it goes together nicely. The decals provided went on very well.  I made this kit having made an Accurate Miniatures version back in the day with fond memories plus I have recently watched the film Midway, where the SBD is definitely the star of the show. I have just noticed that I haven't fitted the landing hook!"

John Ovenden has sent us some shots of a German WWII lorry that he is building. He didn't provide any details but I assume that it is the 

ICM 1/35th scale model. 

A work in progress so we expect to see the finished item soon.

Another w.i.p. but 99% finished, according to John Rose.  He says "Tried to clear desk of part/nearly done kits and the gods conspire to thwart me yet again!" This is his

Tamiya 1/3th scale PzKfpwIII

Jim Smetherham has a tale to tell about his building of an

AFVClub M42 Duster

For the gory details, check out his "Member's Article" on the club web site.

Peter Carlo send in details of two of his recently completed models.

First up is 

A Kittyhawk kit of the

FJ2 North American Fury

"The kit is typical Kittyhawk needing very careful fitting, scrape apart from mating surfaces glue in short sections while holding with tape. Again recessed panel lines aid painting for natural metal finish in essence darker panels are generally stronger or more heat resistant.

The aircraft had a short operational life due to being over weight because of modifications to fit it for the naval role which left it under powered, only carrying 20mm cannon as armament.

This is a very pleasant kit to build but you need to take your time and to quote--- fit twice fit twice more then glue ! There is very little filler needed just care and patience."

Peter's second offering is

Lockheed Starfire F-94

"The starfire is a Kittyhawk kit. It goes together very well with next to no filler but does need careful fitting before applying glue. Panel lines are recessed which helps with masking as this takes as long as you have patience and/or time for but the results are worth it. The aircraft was the first US all missile interceptor. The missiles/ rockets mounted in the nose and the two mid wing pods this  turned out to not be very reliable but was all that was available at the time."

Lastly, we have two contributions from Peter Terry.

"This month I have another 

Airfix Spitfire Vc. in 1/72nd scale

This time in Australian markings from a training squadron in 1943. I got further information on camouflage for the foliage green colour from Brett Green of Hyperscale ."

The second kit this month is the 

AZ Bf109e 

from the North African boxing.

Seeing the images better

Can I remind you that you can double click on any image to see a larger version for more details. If you do this then click on the X in the top right hand corner to return to the blog.

The club website

This has been up and down over the last few months and I have finally resolved to do something about it. Gloss over this if you are "techie phobic". I decided to move from my normal platform to a Smalltalk called Pharo. Within this, a service called  "Seaside" helps me build and run the web pages. It has taken some time to get to grips with the change in the environment but I think that I am pretty much there. All that needs to be done now is to move the development over to the 24/7/365 web server running under my desk. I expect to get this done on the next few days. Hopefully, the web site should then run without a hitch.

Lastly

Important news from Peter regarding the return to face-to-face meetings. The first meeting in May is delayed so read this carefully:

"Hi Everyone,

I am pleased to announce that we will be resuming regular meetings from May. For this month only we will be meeting on the third Thursday of the month that being the 20th and from June onwards we will be meeting on our usual meeting night of the first Thursday of every month.

Please note the following shows have also been booked,

The Essex Modellers Show Hannakins Farm Community Centre Rosebay Ave Billericay Essex CM12 0SZ.

Sunday the 25th of July.

St Ives Model Show, Burgess Hall St Ives Westwood Road St Ives Cambridgeshire PE27 6WU

Sunday The 26th of September .

SMW Telford The International Centre St Quentin Gate Telford Shropshire TF3 4JH

Saturday and Sunday 13th and 14th of November. 

Regards Peter"

Just to remind you that all of the shows that Peter has booked are listed on the website should you need reminding of dates or locations.

That's all for this month. See you all soon!