Quite a sparse meeting this evening with just 5 models on the table. It was good to see Richard Pearce back again after quite a long time. It seems that he has his own figure sculpting company now - Mookies Miniatures, one of which was on the table tonight.
We had a bit of a knock about conversation and then got down to the serious bits. Telford looms and most of the members are saving their pennies for that - pennies? Ha - more like 20s if I know them all.
Now to the models on the table.
Bill Banks
Bill always gives me a "scrip" for his models so I just cut and paste that.
"Airfix 1;48 Supermarine Spitfire Mk XV111.in the colours of Western Command HQ Indian Air Force Delhi 1947.
There cannot be much more to say about spitfires! My copy of Janes stops at Mk XV1. however mMk XV111 had significant improvements. Cockpit layout to benefit the pilot, strengthened wings to carry rockets and bombs plus increased fuel capacity.
It was last in active RAF service Malaya 1954.
The Indian air force was established in 1932. Until 1947 it had the title Royal until India became a republic in1950."
David Pennington
David brought along a "four foot" model, which means that it should be looked at from four feet away! He intended to bring a Revell 1/72nd scale Chance Vought Corsair but somehow he lost the cockpit canopy. Instead, he bought a Revell P-51D Mustang, not realising that it was a kit from about 30 years ago! Lots of flash and only one decal option. Well, one of the undercarriage wheels came off so that was fixed with a small length of brass rod. It wasn't too bad at the end but a bit rushed. It wasn't until he was packing for the club that he realised that he hadn't put the yellow tips on the prop blades so it was a close call!
Richard Pearce
Richard was always known for remodelling existing figurines and here was a good example. The Arnhem Gliider Pilot was a gift but he changed it around giving it the ceramic shield.
His second figure was one that he modelled himself. Well, that is something that I will never understand how to start, let alone finish! His painting is superb as well.
Peter Terry
With so little planes on the table you would have thought that it was impossible to have two the same but Peter brought along, guess what, a P-51D mustang! This time, it was an Italeri kit in the guise of the South African Air Force. It made mine look a little shabby but there we are.
Sum Up
In spite of the low numbers, it was a good evening, even though John Ovendon took some ribbing from me for not bringing anything. John - we missed your armour.
Well, I am back in harness. First off, we had a very welcome return of Paul Flower to the club. Paul seems to concentrate on F1 cars. This is a subject dear to my heart but he does great things. He brought along a absolute gem. It was a ModelFactory Hiroboy 1/20th scale mixed media Mclaren M7A as raced by Denny Hulme. These kits are available to order only from Hiroboy UK and cost a lot of money - Paul admitted to £150 when he bought it some years ago but they are currently around the £250 mark. It is a mixed media kit in that it has parts made of white metal, resin and plastic so it requires skill and an adept hand with super glue to get it together let alone into the finish that Paul has achieved.
The Table
Bill Banks
Bill always gives me a "script" so here is his for this month's model.
"Lublin R -X!!! TER Polish Mirage model 1:48 Scale...Vintage...superglue essential!
Named after town of manufacture. Developed between 1933 and 1938. 288 produced. The float version served as survey and patrol aircraft for the Polish Navy in the Baltic. This was a a small fleet of 4 Destroyers 5 Submarines and various small vessels. The fleet limited by the depression years.
The Army version had double wheeled sprung undercarriage with leading wheel. All powered by Wright Whirlwind radial engines.
By 1938 were obsolete and replaced by more advanced fighters such as P11 but still no match for the German fighters. However they fought bravely with some success. Advent of the Russians made war on 2 fronts impossible.
The useful squadrons were dispersed to the countryside leaving obsolete machines on the tarmac.
The flying force fled to France England Finland and USA.
The Naval Force of 4 Destroyers escaped to Scapa Flow. ! submarine escaped to England without charts...4 were interred in the Baltic.All pilots and ships made a major contribution to the war effort."
David Pennington
David (me) brought along a 54mm white metal figure from Beneito-Hidalgo. This was a British Infantry Sergeant in the Zulu wars of 1879.
David told how difficult it was to get the model together as there are no instructions.
Gordon Fisher
Gordon brought along an Airfix 1/72nd scale Hunting Percival Jet Provost T4 - C flight, 79 Squadron No. 1 Tactical Weapons Unit at RAF Chivenor in 1989.
John Ovendon
John showed us a huge (!) Heller PzKfw III L. Why would anyone make a 1/16th scale tank? (Joke). He had made a really nice diorama base for it. Evidently, he is waiting for Alpine to bring out some 1/16th figures but he is concerned about the likely cost!
John Rose
He brought along a few of his "work in progress" PzKfw IV models. They are all 1/35th scale Dragon kits.
Lastly, he showed us a nice one, still Dragon, of course.
John Teagle
Well, John placed two models on the table and all he could tell us was the obvious. 1/48th scale F-16 and F-18. Manufacturer ?? Any more details ??? He says that he can't remember any details. Nice models, though.
Peter Carlo
Peter brought along a nice 1/48th scale Italeri S-3A Viking. His comment was "nice kit - not much filler at all"
Paul Flower
We haven't seen Paul for some time so it was good to see him again. I have already mentioned his model earlier but here are some photos. Check out the extreme detail.
Peter Terry
Peter is on a bit of a roll with Japanese WWII/China aircraft in 1/72nd scale. This one is an AZ Model of a K130 "Ann" from the Japanese Air Force in China 1938.
Any Other Business
Not having had an AGM for a couple of year due to the pandemic and the member who ran them so efficiently (Arthur Banyard) being indisposed, we really had to have one. If you blinked, you would have missed it. No-one stood against the current place holders so Peter Terry and Peter Carlo were re-elected as Chairman and Treasurer. Peter Carlo gave us his Treasurer's report. The club has a good working cash balance of £1,551.23. The only real expenditure items are the rent of the hall which is paid annually and a payment of £50 to me, David Pennington, which I use towards my £600 p.a. broadband cost (due to the need to run a server 24/7).
This is the first meeting that I have missed in 2 1/2 years but my arthritis finally got too much for me. I will be back next month. In the meantime, John Ovenden kindly took some photos and Peter Terry filled me in with all the details. There were eight models on the table so here goes...
Peter wrote: "Nine members attended on a very warm evening with military subjects in abundance John Ovenden's one sixteenth early Panzer IIb made a very impressive presence as did Jeff Adams' Napoleonic figures including Napoleon himself depicted asleep with feet up on a drum. Jeff's Sherman tank was work in progress. Bill Banks 1/48 scale Lublin flying boat from a very old Polish kit made a very unusual subject for the table but Bill has now taken delivery of a kit of a Spitfire, newly released from the Airfix range! That will make a big change for Bills modelling tempo.
Peter Carlo presented his latest 1/48 scale aircraft model of the Airfix TSR 2 in what-if markings of a operational RAF Squadron giving us a glimpse of what might have been if the political pickle of past years had not taken place, making a good point of discussion during the evening.
Peter Terry presented a small 1/76 scale collection of vehicle's used by the Africa Korps between the 1941-2 period painted and detailed from German photographic archives. John Rose made a very nice model Panzer IV making a step change from the Sherman production for which much of his modelling fame comes."
Quite a big turnout this month. Crispen turned up with a pile of boxes but, strangely, John Rose only brought one work in progress (W.I.P.). I brought along my Tamiya M10 Achilles of which I am quite proud only to find that Jeff Adams brought along his M10 so mine will obviously have some serious competition - not that we have any competitions in the Clacton Club. Anyway, let's get on. First off is the usual video which this month is --- you guessed it - Jeff's M10!
OK so let's now have a look at what everybody brought along.
John Rose
John normally brings along some nice finished armour but this time all we had was a W.I.P. This is a Hobby Boss kit in 1/35th which models a Panzer IV Tauch (extra armour) sporting a very high snorkel tube. It seems that the idea of this was to aid an invasion of Britain. The tank is supposed to run under water but, as the English Channel is over 20 metres deep (66 feet) this was never going to work. Fun to look at though.
John Ovendon
John usually has a nice line in WWII armour but this time he presented us with a British (Afghanistan) FV510 Warrior. This is a Meng kit that was given to him by a relative so he felt duty bound to make it although he says that he doesn't't enjoy making modern armour. Amazingly, it is all plastic, including the grill. He found the blue glass a bit odd!
Jeff Adams
Jeff brought along two models. One is the M10 shown above.
This is an Academy 1/35th scale kit with the following extras: Blast Models storage; a Tamiya figure; a metal barrel and ammo from Armourscale/RB Models. All in all, a very nice rendition.
His second model was an amazing 54mm Historex mountedHussar from Napoleon's 6th Regiment in 1814. Amazingly, Jeff found that the horse (which comes in 2 halves) was too narrow so he widened it with some 40 thou plastic card. This, of course, meant that he had to widen everything else - a major rebuild. Then he had to use a pyrogravure to re-texture the fur on the jacket. Historex kits come with things like straps and webbing just as a length of material and it all has to be cut and glued in place. Personally, I have tried to make Historex kits ( going back to 1972) but have always failed!
Try right clicking on the image and see it in another tab or window in full size.
Crispen Block
I am a bit embarrassed here because, although I got a picture of Crispen's pile of kits, I didn't understand the explanation so if anyone can fill me in, I will correct this post. here is the picture. Crispen looks bit fierce and Andrew a bit bemused but there we are.
Bill Banks
Bill brought along a North American P-51D Mustang built from an Airfix kit in 1/72nd scale. Bill always gives me a script about his models as he always does some investigation into them. He said:
"A good kit for an attractive aircraft.It went together well. Any difficulties were of my making.
This aircraft was designed to a specification provided by a British Equipment Procurement Division. Based on RAF requirements.The result was an excellent aircraft almost straight from the drawing board. The major drawback was the Allison engine.The introduction of the RR Merlin transformed it into a world beating fighter. It had massive fuel capacity with drop tanks enabling bomber escort to the target and back.
The Merlin was made under license by Packard. The Mustang saw service in many forces until 1979. Many are in private hands now. It was credited with 4950 kills. 15586 were constructed with many post war variants as well as constructed in Australia post war."
Gordon Fisher
Gordon, at my request, brought along a little diorama that I missed photographing last meeting. It is of a Spitfire and a Merlin engine supposedly on display in amuseum. The kit is from Airfix in 1/72 and the people and OO model railway figures.
David Pennington
I showed my Tamiya 1/35th scale British M10 Achilles which differed from the one shown by Jeff by having the fabulous 17pounder gun which could knock out pretty much anything the the German's had. Again, unlike Jeff's model, the Tamiya kit comes with storage, ammo, etc. Unfortunately, the 50 cal. machine gun got broken in transit so that will have to be refitted. The base was made from some spare 5mm foam core and three green scrubbing squares. Put together with a coat of Sculptamold and some scenic accessories like Lichen, it is a fair representation of the Bocage in Normandy. I have written at article for the club web site so check that out.
We had a discussion about the brass plaques that both Jeff and I had (mine hadn't arrived when I took this picture). Mine came from eBay and cost £1.98 whilst Jeff's came from Argyll Engraving Gifts and cost 99p - both of these including postage! Mine was 50mm x 25mm. I don't know the size of Jeff's plate.
John Teagle
John showed us two nice Tamiya W.I.P. in 1/35th scale. The first was a nice little Universal Carrier (or Bren Gun Carrier as you wish).
The second was Tamiya's Quad tractor and 25pdr. A universally loved kit topic.
We look forward to seeing these when they are finished.
Peter Carlo
Peter was given this kit of a Revel Mandalorian Razor Crest in 1/72nd scale(?). It turned out to be a big beast and now has lights in the cockpit etc so it looks very impressive. The base is the lid to a box that his wife donated! Peter has written a short article about this build. I will e-mail everyone when it is available.
Peter Terry
Last of all, Peter had built an Italeri Hellcat in his usual 1/72nd scale. It was made out of the box but has been weathered to match that in a series on the Smithsonian TV channel. The weathering was done with pastels. The base was very cheap and purchased at the Milton Keynes or Ely show (can't remember which) from Basic Bases - unfortunately, I cant find a web site so keep your eyes peeled at the next show.
Finale
That's it. lots to see and talk about. A very good night. We did discuss having an Annual General Meeting as we have missed them since Arthur Banyard hasn't been able to make it to the meetings. Next time, maybe.
Lastly, don't forget that the comment against Jeff's Historex figure applies to any image: "Try right clicking on the image and see it in another tab or window in full size."
