Merry Christmas (And A Mustang Update) - Part 1

First of all, Merry Christmas to all the readers of this blog, I hope your Christmas modelling endeavours are going well!

As promised the Mustang build has begun with Academy's 1:72 scale P-51B. Construction begun with the cockpit, which to fair to this kit is pretty decent straight out of the box. However as I was using an Eduard photo etch set, (SS250), to enhance it I had to file away a fair bit of it!

As you can imagine at this scale, things are small, but that was nothing compared to constructing the side walls. The Eduard set make a more 3D effect to the cockpit which looks much better, after some very fiddly bending and folding of parts which almost too small! Well worth the effort though.

So after waiting for all that glue to dry then it was onto putting the two halves together. Experience has taught me that Academy kits don't tend to go together well and this was the case again.It took a fair bit of filing, pushing and cursing to get them together with a small but fillable gap between them.

Once they were together the next stage was to attach the wings. The wings consist of a single bottom half with both wings and two top halves. The instructions say that you should build the whole assembly and then slot it onto the fuselage. Given the fit issues I'd experienced I decided to slot the single bottom half onto the fuselage with a bit of cutting and filing. Once that was in place I attached the two wing tops. As it happens that's exactly the way the Tamiya F-51D kit is meant to be built and I think it works much easier that way.

So all in all, a productive day. Only thing was that I was careless with the glazed parts, again! Fortunately the plastic box my breakfast croissant came in was a lifesaver as I was able to cut out a replacement window from it!

Christmas Mustangs

After the complete failure of trying to build Academy's F6F-3 Hellcat I've decided to get straight back into action with a dual build.

I've been running short of a few essentials but fortunately a delivery arrived for me, primer, paints, a few detail sets and some decals, just in time for Christmas!

So what am I building next?

I've decided to attempt to build two models at the same time, two 1:72 scale P-51 Mustangs.

First up is Academy's P-51B Mustang, Old Crow, (kit #1667 or #12464) with the addition of an Eduard photo etch set (SS250). First impressions are that this is a nicely detailed kit, I hoping that it goes together better than the last Academy kit I tried.

As well as that I'll be building Tamiya's F-51D Mustang, however I'm planning on converting it back to an earlier WWII P-51D. The main reason for this is that I bought this kit second hand and the decals have perished. So I've got some replacement decals from Kits-World (set #2049). I have to say I'm really impressed with their sets, check them out! Finally, as luxury item, I've got a resin interior set from CMK (#7172). I've been curious about the products they offer so I thought I'd try out a fairly simple one with a view to buying more in the future.

So a few more days of work and then the Christmas break arrives and with it some quality modelling time and more updates!

Simple Scratchbuilding - Academy's F6F-3/5 Hellcat (2224)

After my last build I decided that my next model would be an opposing aircraft, also in flight. Naturally I decided on the Zero's rival, the Grumman F6F Hellcat, of which I had a couple to choose from in my stash.

Opening up Academy's 1/72 F6F-3/5 kit (2224) I was surprised to find that there was only the option to build a wheels down version.

Any way you like as long as it's gear down

Oh well, I thought, guess I'm going to have to build Eduard's F6F-3 (kit 7076, also 1/72 scale). But once again, only one option is offered, wheels down.

I imagine the reason for this is that the Hellcat had hydraulically actuated landing gear struts which rotated through 90° and retracted backwards into the wings (instead of sideways like many other aircraft of the era). I presume this was because the wings folded up to save space when been transported on aircraft carriers. From a modelling point of view this would mean manufacturers would have to produce more parts so in these cases it's appears they didn't feel the need to.

So with the parts I had, I decided to try and model the gear up. This wasn't a straight forward as I expected. For a start the gear covers don't actually fit the space where they'd go if they were up, so some trimming was be needed! Fortunately there was enough space within the wing for the wheels, the finishing touch was to added the struts. These were made from small pieces of cocktail sticks, sliced horizontally.

Finally I cut a hole in the base of the aircraft for the stand. One thing I learnt from my last build was, doing this on a completed model is a somewhat nerve-wracking task, best avoided if possible!

Update 16-Dec: Unfortunately this particular build was consigned to the scrapheap soon afterwards. While trying to fit the clear parts I damaged several of them which meant I would not be able to finish this model to the standard I'd hoped for. (I later realised that the fumes from the glue I used to stick the two fuselage halves together above the clear parts had caused them to fog).

Complete - Airfix's A6M2b Zero (A01005)

Completed Review - Airfix's A6M2b Zero (A01005) - Part 2

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £5.99

It's been more than a month since I last wrote about Airfix's A6M2b Zero and as it's approaching completion I thought it's about time I wrote a bit more about it.

Apart from the issue mentioned previously with fitting the machine guns and cowl the kit pretty much fell together, I didn't actually feel the need to do any filling, which is always a bonus. The clear parts fitted well and aren't too thick, meaning some of the details inside can still been seen.

To paint the model I used Tamiya acrylics. I'm becoming more confident using an airbrush and so this time I attempted to pre-shade the panel lines with Tamiya's XF-1, Flat Black, although this worked better on the base of the aircraft.

The base was then sprayed with XF-12, JN Grey, while the rest of the aircraft was sprayed with JN Green (XF-70). Finally in order to highlight the model the green was highlighted with lighter mixes of JN Green and Interior Green (XF-71, the colour I'd used for the interior).

Spraying went well and it's really good for the confidence to have a successful spell with the airbrush. There was a slight issue with a dog hair getting stuck in the freshly sprayed paint but I was fortunately able to rescue it...

Next, I moved onto the decals.

I have to say I found them a little thick and a bit more work than they should have been, especially as Airfix claim this is a level 1 difficultly kit.

The yellow bands along the front of the wing took some bending before they settled and the red outlines to the rear of the wings seem poorly thought out. The decal was a thin rectangle with a hollow centre (rather than being a solid rectangle decal) and as you can imagine was somewhat awkward to slide into place. With hindsight I should have cut it into more manageable pieces, but I got it settled eventually.

So for now that's it. I'm intending to display this model in flight, weather it a bit and attach the spinner. I've not attached the landing gear yet until I've found a suitable base to for it (otherwise the gear will be down).

Looking back to when I wrote my in-box review of this kit I scored it 4 out of 5. So the question is, now that I've built it, do I stand by that original score? There were a few issues in the build, but once it's built it's a really good looking kit. For the money you pay it's absolutely worth it, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend that you have a go at building one.

Overall Build Score: 4 out of 5, as I wrote before, Airfix can be really proud of this release. Easily the best budget Zero kit out there and one that can also hold it's own with the high end kits.

Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money - November 2013

I've recently been spending a bit of time searching Kickstarter for a miniatures or gaming project and thought I'd share a few finds.

In my experience when looking at in the games category there tends to be a mix of smaller companies and indie projects and then there's the established companies who are using the platform to generate pre-sales for a project they would have done anyway. While there's nothing wrong with this I want to focus on those smaller companies and their projects.

First up is Journey: Wrath of Demons a first time game by a Hong Kong based company, Marrow Production. Now I have to admit the subject area isn't something I'd normally go for but seeing the resin miniatures they had to offer certainly got my attention.

It appears that these miniatures will be 1:35 scale and the resin models will feature in the higher funding options, they really do look good! However in the standard game option the miniatures will be plastic although Marrow Production did post that they would be similar in quality to models produced by Dragon, who will be familiar to the military modellers amongst you. I don't know if that means they have an arrangement with Dragon or not, but it certainly sounds promising.

Next up is Aliens vs Predator, the Miniatures Game  by the English company Prodos Games. What can I say, Aliens, Predators, Colonial Marines, in resin. Who could say "no" to that?

They're 28mm scale models and as with the previous project, they look outstanding. For the purpose of this Kickstarter the figures will be polyurethane resin before switching to plastic for general release. However this Kickstarter seems to have had a shaky start. Numerous complaints about being overpriced, too little in the box, all stretch goals being paid for add-ons and so on. But I have to say, £75 for (at the time of writing) for 20+ aliens of various sizes, 3 predators, 5 Colonial Marines, all in resin would seem like a good deal for figures alone!

So which to choose? I've been going back and forth between the two, the one thing I do know, my model budget is only going to allow for one.

If I want a complete product, both miniatures and game then it's probably going to be Journey: Wrath of Demons. Marrow Production have a done a fantastic job of showcasing both the game and the miniatures in such a way that I want to play it. I want to learn more about the setting and experience a game that I wouldn't have normally considered.

Prodos, sadly, haven't yet showcased their game system (although they say they will soon) and so I can't say it feels like anything more than a collection of miniatures. But what miniatures they are! As an Aliens fan I've been waiting a long time for figures like this.

Tough choice...

Completed - Games Workshop Moving Skeletons Diorama

Finally, something has been finished! My moving skeletons project.

When I first started building these skeletons I had an idea that they'd be facing off again an opponent (or opponents) who would be in a similarly dynamic pose. Unfortunately searching through my spares box yielded little in the way of suitable figures. The one candidate was an Empire halberdier but he was holding his weapon aloft rather than in a combat pose. So this meant rather than a fight, a pursuit would be the theme of the diorama.

And so on to the final hurdle, finding a suitable base. The first time I had the idea of a pursuit an image of a dungeon corridor came to mind but I felt the skeletons didn't complement each other well on a rectangular base. I felt a circular base would work better allow the chase to develop from several side (especially with the figures I had).

It was then that I found some perfect circular resin bases from Fenris Games. After picking one and waiting for it to arrive, (which was not long, they provide a very good service), I could finally complete this project.

So here it is:

And as the whole point of this project was "movement," here's an animated version:

All in all this has been a thoroughly enjoyable project. I've had a chance to paint skeletons for the first time and was surprised how satisfying they are to paint. From that one moment of thinking, "those skeletons need to look like they're moving" to finishing this project I've really enjoyed trying to bring some life into static figures. I certainly hope to try something along the same lines in the future.

Halloween Zombies!

Brains.... Ugh.... Arrgh.... Urgh....

As it's Halloween I thought I'd post a few zombie pictures. I've been raiding my bits box, putting together odd parts, in a Doctor Frankenstein style if you like.

Guts and a couple of zombie pirates

An arrow through the head, he'll feel that in the morning...

A zombie dwarf, human dreg and zombie

Mostly a mix of Games Workshop plastic parts from the Zombie and Empire Militia sets. These two sets combine well to give a bit more variation than the standard zombie set. The only issue is at £20.50 a set it can be a bit pricey, which is why these are all from my spares!

The Dwarf is a bit of a mystery, as far as I can tell the parts I used are out of production dwarf and goblin parts with a zombie head. How these parts came to be in my spare box escapes me at this time... Finally the human dreg is an old Necromunda scavvy with hands from the Empire Militia set.

I'm not really a fan of green zombies so I painted them with an mummified look. This was simply a case of painting them as normal humans and then adding brown ink washes and paler highlights to give them a more pallid look. And of course, blood and various wounds to finish off.

Anyway back to the spares box to see what I can splice together next...

Build Review - Frustration & Airfix's A6M2b Zero (A01005) - Part 1

I'm sure we've all been there, a nice easy night planned doing a few simple modelling tasks. Well tonight was that night, I was going to work on Airfix's 1:72 A6M2b Zero and then spend the rest of the evening writing a blog post (but not this one).

However things didn't go to plan due to a frustrating evening caused by a bad set of instructions. So time to turn that frustration to something helpful for anyone wishing to build this kit.

The part in question is the fitting of machine guns and the cowl that covers them. In step 5 you attach the machine guns to the underside of the cowl before fixing them in place in step 7. However the part is too wide to slot in vertically as shown in the instructions.

Step 5

Step 7

Thankfully I hadn't attached the engine as the only way in was to try and slide the cowl and guns in from engine end. This was awkward as the parts kept catching which resulted in parts 14C and 8A separating on numerous attempts. Eventually I managed it with the aid of a dental tool and a small file to push them into place, Although the two parts were slightly separated it shouldn't be noticeable once the canopy's fixed in place. A dab of glue on part 8A before sliding it in sees that it attaches to the top of the control panel in the cockpit.


Anyway, I hope that's some help if you are planning on building this kit and have been doing an internet search before getting started!

While I'm here I may as well put up a picture of the cockpit parts and the pilot. I really dislike painting people at this scale however this pilot painted up really well (this photo doesn't do him justice). The cockpit has some small details which paint up nicely, and the dials are decals which do the job just fine.

So despite the minor setbacks so far it's a nice kit, I'm sure further updates will follow.

Zero Plus Zero - In Box Review (Airfix & Tamiya)

When it comes to Second World War aircraft I have to confess the aircraft of Japan are ones that I've tended to overlook. With that in mind I decided to make up for it by taking a look at a couple of Japanese Navy aircraft kits of the legendary Zero.

The Zero is a popular choice with Asian model companies, Hasegawa, Fine Molds and Tamiya have released numerous kits over many years. However they seem to be less popular with western companies, I can only dream of an Eduard Profipack version! It was a newer 1:72 scale release from Airfix that first prompted me to take a look at the Zero and soon after I followed that purchase with another, the Tamiya 1:72 version. Before purchasing I also inspected those of Academy and Hasegawa but decided what I had was the best in their respective price ranges.

The Airfix kit that I'm going to take a look at is the A6M2b version, the Tamiya kit is the later A6M5 variant. While Tamiya have also released an A6M2b (the next kit they released after the A6M5) I elected not to purchase this one as I wanted to build different versions. I did however inspect both Tamiya kits before purchase and found them to exactly the same in terms of quality.

These kits are at opposite ends of the price scale, so how do they compare?


Airfix Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero (A01005)

This Airfix 1:72 scale kit is one of their more recent new toolings. It's available in two versions, this standard kit and a starter kit with paints. The two kits offer different colour schemes, this one a Mitsubishi Green scheme from later in the war, the starter kit a white colour scheme from the time of the Pearl Harbour raid.

As is case with Airfix's series one kits you only get the one colour scheme, not too much of an issue as you can only make the one aircraft anyway. Decals in these new kits are by Cartograf and if they're like any of the other newer Airfix kits they should be just fine.

Upon opening the box I there ares three sprues of grey plastic and one clear canopy. The parts look well moulded and fairly detailed. The panel lines are a bit heavy but despite this it's a vast improvement on Airfix's older kits. There's even detail on the cockpit walls, although I'm not sure how much will be visible once you attach the single piece (closed) canopy. As with most Airfix kits you also get a pilot should you wish use him, personally I think it's always nice to be given the choice!

Manufacturer's finished product shot

I have to say I'm quite impressed at this kit, opening it and inspecting the parts really gave me a feeling of "I want to build this kit." While there are more detailed kits available it doesn't automatically mean this kit isn't worth your time. Far from it, this is decent little kit, even more so when you consider it's more detailed rivals are more than twice the price. Compare it to it's nearest rival at a similar price bracket, Academy's kit and the Airfix kit is streets ahead.

Tamiya Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero - Zeke (60779)

I think Tamiya can probably be considered the "King" of Zero kits, so it's probably not dificult to guess the direction this review is going to go. Tamiya have been releasing Zeros in 1:48 scale since my childhood (and before) and in 2008 they started refreshing the range. A new 1:32 scale release followed before we finally got a 1:72 scale version.

So what do you get? Two sprues of very nicely detailed grey plastic, a couple of polycaps for the spinner, clear parts for either an open or closed canopy and a nice little fact sheet about the Zero as well as the instruction booklet. Just looking the sprues I was blown away by the detail, I even had to remind myself this was a 1:72 scale kit! No pilot though I'm afraid, but Tamiya never have offered them at this scale which I've always felt is a shame.

The kit offers schemes for three aircraft, all in Mitsubishi Green. Decals appear to be as good as those in the Airfix kit but of course I'll only be able to confirm that after applying them.

Manufacturer's finished product shot

This is clearly a more detailed and more polished kit than Airfix's offering. However it should be, at three times the price you expect that. A more reasonable comparison would be with a more expensive Hasegawa kit and here the Tamiya offering still comes out on top.

So which to buy?

If you had to choose one I think it would come down to price alone. The Airfix kit is exceptional value and in the sub-£10 price bracket you need not look elsewhere. The Tamiya kit retails at around the £20 mark and is simply the best kit there is in this scale, if you want to pay that much.

If money's no object, (and you're not buying them to review), then I recommend you buy them both!

Airfix A6M2b Zero - Overall In Box Score: Promising. Excellent value, Airfix can be really proud of this release.

Tamiya A6M5 Zero - Overall In Box Score: Outstanding. I have no words left to say how good this kit looks!

In the coming months I'd certainly like to try build these kits and see if I still stand by these scores. When I do I'll update this post with a link to a build post(s).
 

WIP: Moving Skeletons

Following my last post I've made some progress on a few moving skeletons. But first things first, I have new found respect for anyone making an army of these things. They have a habit of breaking very easily. Even more so when you been chopping them into pieces, repositioning, and then glueing them back together (and when you throw my aggressive dry-brushing into the mix)!

So here's a few WIP shots. All the parts are from the Games Workshop, I just need to finish up the armour and weapons and attach the arms that are currently in the way of painting. Once that's done I'll mounted them on a base (yet to ordered) as I've decided on a small dungeon themed diorama.

Standard skeleton warrior, chaos marauder shield.

Standard skeleton warrior, right leg from a mounted skeleton.

Standard skeleton warrior, legs from a tomb king skeleton

Standard skeleton warrior, shield from a chaos warrior, with original hand removed. Left leg from a mounted skeleton.

I have a few more ideas, but until I've worked out how many I can fit on a base these four will be all for now.

So anyway, thinking back a few posts I was rather critical of Games Workshop and their new painting guides. Time to put my money where my mouth is and give you all a quick, but helpful, skeleton painting overview (no pictures I'm afraid as I was painting in bad light for photographs). To paint these I've used Citadel paints, but not the most recent releases so you may need to check out the conversion chart if you're using newer paints.

Step 1
Primer layer, straight onto the plastic with a coat of Scorched Brown, make sure you cover all areas as you don't want any grey showing through.
Step 2
A heavy dry-brush of Bestial Brown. This is effectively your base coat but in some of the deeper recesses (such as eye sockets) you may leave the primer layer showing.
Step 3
Dry-brush Bleached bone over the whole model. Before the paint is dry clean you brush and use it to give a hard polish to areas of bone such as, legs, arms, the tops of skulls.
Step 4
Wash a slightly watered down mix of Badab Black into joints and the gaps in the ribs, leave to dry.
Step 5
Highlight bones with Skull White You can miss this stage out for a really dirty looking skeleton if you want. The skeletons above are meant to be dungeon dead so I figured they'd be a bit cleaner than buried dead.
Step 6
A final wash with either Gryphone Sepia or Ogryn Flesh, leave to dry. When this wash dries it gives an aged look to the bones, so vary the amount of water mixed with the paint for each skeleton to get a varied look across a group of them.
Step 7
Finally highlight with Skull White, teeth, around the eyes, finger bones and you're done!

Overall they're fairly easy to paint and seven steps isn't as much work as it seems. It's worth varying the various stages and using different strength washes if painting lots of them because that helps add variation. Any more advice? Feel free to comment or contact me!

It's All About The Moves

The other day I was reminded of film that seemed to feature in the Christmas schedule most years during my childhood, Jason and the Argonauts.

The film will be memorable to most model fans for the work of the late Ray Harryhausen and in particular one scene stand out above all other. The fight between the heroes of the story and Harryhausen's stop-motion skeletons. I remember it having such an effect on me back then. The stop motion effect only seemed to add a realism to the skeletons. With their awkward movements they seem to have such a sinister malevolence about them as a result of it. And then when they get going, their speed makes them such a determined and fierce enemy.

Watching it again after so many years and I was surprised how good this scene still is. I think it's more alive than the majority of CGI scenes in the films of today. A remarkable testament to Ray Harryhausen's craft given that this film is now 50 years old.

And it was this that got me thinking about models. Fantasy models tend to be a bit static, especially ones that are meant to be standing in rank and file. Was it possible to capture that speed and ferocity in model form? Of course unlike the film skeletons, these ones will not be viewed as moving, so the challenge is in capturing a still moment of movement.

After a search through my spares box I've got together a selection of Games Workshop skeleton parts and I'm going to give it a go. As you can see from the image below they're mostly standing still and so they'll need a bit of repositioning and a few weapon swaps to add a some variation.

This is one thing I really enjoy, converting models. It's been a while since I've done this and so I'm really looking forward it as a mini project. While I'm at it I might also go through my spares to find some opponents for them to face off against as well.

Finally, the clip above is only a part clip. It's hard to believe that youtube doesn't have the whole scene (without some awful soundtrack added). The full scene can be found here mostly likely after a long advert...

Review - How to Paint Citadel Miniatures (for iPad)

RRP - From £1.99 to £17.99 (although I received a free promotional offer)

Having found the miniatures I mentioned in my previous post I decided that before I started painting them I'd take a quick at a few painting guides to refresh my memory a bit. Naturally my first stop was the Games Workshop website which I knew had a wealth of resources, except it didn't...

After searching in vain and almost convinced that'd I'd somehow losing the ability to search the internet I realised that all the painting guides and all the conversion articles had been removed. Now I suspect the official reason will be that the conversion guides have been removed because they no longer sell components, and the painting guides, they'd have gone because all the names of the paints have changed.

Anyway whatever the reason my search eventually led to the iTunes store where, to no surprise, I found that you can buy painting guides. I opted to try a free guide to Space Marines for the iPad before deciding if I should buy one of the others.

First impressions are that it looks very good on the screen, bold high resolution pictures and plenty of content. These painting guides are fully up-to-date, featuring the newest range of Citadel paints which saves me having to use a conversion colour chart, (although in reality I'm using a mix of old and new paints). After a very short introduction to a few hobby basics it takes you straight into the guide for painting the first type of Space Marine.

There's another 70 pages of this

The typical painting guide page consists of list of paints, a large interactive picture which shows you each painting stage. This is then repeated for each part of the model, the armour, weapons, faces etc. And that's it, a few pages in and it allow seems a little empty. Words are kept to a minimum, advice on technique or mixes is non-existent. You finish the section on blue Space Marines and then it's on to the white ones, black ones, yellow ones and so on. It's just (on average) four colours per stage, which is great if you want to paint models to the Games Workshop's "standard". Want to do anything creative, then it seems you're not exactly going to find much help in the world of "How to paint Citadel Miniatures."

Until recently the guides in the White Dwarf magazine and on the website helped aspiring painters by showing such a wide and varied range of topics and painting styles. Inspiring they most certainly were, you'd pick up a brush really wanting to try to emulate what you saw on the pages of the magazine.

How it used to be

I remember the the old painting guides from the 1980's, the unique work of John Blanche, (a painter and artist that inspired me so much), the helpful step by step guides of more recent years and I can't help but wonder where it's all gone.

So where do aspiring painters go. Thankfully there is the internet and there are thousands of guides, websites and blogs ran by people who love their hobby and are more than willing to share that advice with others.

Overall, technologically a good tool, the content however is shallow and basic, much improvement is needed before it'll appeal to anyone other than beginner painters and even then it offers little in technical guidance.

Buried Treasure?

A while ago my father asked me to take some of the huge collection of old miniatures that'd I'd left behind when I left home, almost 20 years ago. Of course in recent years I'd built up a sizeable collection of my own which was filling my own home but I took a few figures that I'd found buried deep in a box and promptly forgot about them.

When I started painting metal figure were by far the best option, plastics were far behind the models you see today. But as time progressed they caught up and I found myself painting them and my vast collection of lead and white metal figures were discarded into boxes to gather dust. I remember at one point I'd do anything to avoid painting metals, so old and out of date was how I viewed them.

Back to the present and I wanted to try a new way of stripping paint and so I decided these old figures would be good for a test. The paint stripping was a success (and will feature in a future blog post). After reading an excellent blog, Realm of Chaos 80s, I began to to look at the figures and see them in a new light.

Sure some of them were certainly worth something on eBay, I'd seen some of the figures selling for between £5 to £50! But really I have no desire to sell them, I feel inspired to give some of them a chance to be repainted rather than cashing them in for a short term gain.

So what did I find?

Here's some of the highlights:

First up a set of figures from the 90's game Warhammer Quest. The Pit Fighter and Chaos Warrior were playable characters, the rest were NPCs from the Lair of the Orc Warlord expansion pack (left to right Gubbinz the Jester, Bogoff the Snotling and Growler the Squighound).

Next up was part of large group of undead, I seem to remember writing a lot of undead scenarios for Warhammer Quest. If my memory serves me well these are all 1990's Wraiths, with the exception of the figure at the bottom left. This one is a 1980's Wight, made from lead.

Finally we have a collection of hero figures that I used over several years. The Golden Wizard and the Dwarf Pirate were more recent figures. The 2 Dwarfs were part of a larger group I had when I played advanced Heroquest in the late 80s / early 90s (before playing Warhammer Quest).





So is nostalgia going to be all it seems? I certainly have happy memories of the times when I played games with these very figures and maybe I was wrong to write off these figures all those years ago. Will they paint up well second time round or have me rushing back to painting newer plastic and resin figures? Well keep reading and I'm sure future posts will hold the answers.

Completed Review – Tamiya 1:700 Japanese Submarines I-16 & I-58 (31453)

Scale: 1:700, RRP - £7.99 

So here's something miniature, 1:700 scale miniature. I have to confess this was an eBay impulse buy, I was browsing Tamiya items and for some reason it stood out from the rest. Before I knew it I'd gone through the checkout and it was on its way to me (along with two German Class Z Destroyers in the same scale).

While waiting for Royal Mail to get it to me I decided to do a bit of research. I have to confess that I know very little about ships and submarines, beyond details of a few famous battles and watching the film Das Boot many years ago. I rather liked the box art and thought it would make a nice naval diorama but my (all be it, limited) research seems to suggest the I-16 was sunk months before I-58 was ready for service and so the box art isn't accurate.

Anyway few days later it arrived and by this time I was excited by the potential for this build and was eager to get it out of the box and get the build started. There aren't many parts to the kit as to be expected, but what there is manages to convey enough detail to make two very nice submarines.

The I-16 has the option of carrying a two man Kohyoteki mini-submarine, so technically you get three subs for your money in this pack! The I-58 comes with a catapult and an Yokosuka E14Y Glen reconnaissance aircraft. Later in the war this submarine carried four Kaiten human torpedoes, however they're not included in this set, Tamiya released a later variant on it's own in another set.

I began by undercoating all the parts on the sprues with a grey Tamiya primer before giving them a base-coat of 2 parts Tamiya XF-53 to 1 part XF-63.

Once everything was dry I began removing the parts carefully from the sprues, and you do have to be careful as the parts are very small and delicate. There was was a fair bit of cleaning required to the periscopes and care has to be taken to avoid bending or snapping them, but apart from that there were no major dramas.

The hulls were both then masked and the decks were sprayed with Tamiya XF-55 ready for the conning towers to be attached. Both these models are waterline models and the flat base is a separate part which can be painted and then attached.

The conning tower assembly consisted of attaching the periscopes, instruments and a deck gun, which was painted with XF-56, metallic grey. It was here I learnt the importance of having a good pair of tweezers. The ones I used were far too thick at the tip and on a few occasions resulted in parts flying across my desk, fortunately to be found afterwards!

I-16 Conning Tower Detail

I-58 Conning Tower Detail including the hanger for the seaplane

Once complete they were both attached to the hull. Next up was the addition of the cranes, mini-sub and the seaplane and before I knew it I had myself two submarines.

So what are my thoughts on this kit? Despite never previously considering ships or submarines as a modelling subject I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable build. I can't really comment on the accuracy of the kit as I don't have enough knowledge of the subject, but for this scale it looks detailed enough to me. There were few aspects I felt were more difficult than they needed to be, mostly as a result of the way the sprues have been created. But apart from that this was a welcome break from the other models that I'm working on so I'd not hesitate to recommend this kit.

Overall Build Score: 3 out of 5, a fairly simple build with a nice end result of two detailed models. Some slight issues with removing parts from the sprues which could result in parts getting broken.

Something Smaller (As Promised)

At the end of my previous post I promised something smaller that I've been working on. Well that something smaller is complete and just awaiting photographing.

So here's a smaller teaser. It's a 1:700 scale Yokosuka E14Y Glen; an Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane. From nose to tail this plane is about 10mm long.

Click the image for a close up!

I haven't decided to take my earlier small 1:100 scale build a step further and start building aircraft at 1:700 scale. This is part of another project that I've been working on this week and once it's all photographed I'll be posting it here!

And Then There Were Two... Or Zwei

There's been a lack of activity for a reason, a good reason, I've been busy building and painting various projects. 

I've also got my hands on a compressor for my airbrush and have been practising with it. After a few false starts it's making a huge difference to what I can achieve with an airbrush and so now I'm having a re-think about what projects I'll be undertaking in the future. For someone who's been so used to brush painting this has opened up a whole new range of potential projects!

In an earlier post I promised that'd I paint more of Tamiya's 1:48 and so now there are two! For now I'll leave you with a picture for this somewhat brief update.

Until the next time where, I hope, there will be something even more "miniature" than I've tried to build before!

Completed Review – Tamiya MiG 19 (61609)

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £3.99

A quick review of a quick build, Tamiya's 1:100 scale MiG-19 Farmer.

The 1:100 scale was introduced many years ago as a competitor to the well established 1:72 scale. However it never really took off and remains largely forgotten. Outside of Tamiya's small range no other models really come to my mind.

I was only reminded of this scale when I typed an incorrect search into eBay and found this particular kit for sale at 99p. So a few 99p bids later and I had myself a MiG-19, a B.A.C Lightning and an A-7A Corsair II all in this scale. All of these kits date from about 10 years ago when Tamiya re-released the range. Some of the originals, I believe, date back to the 1970's.

I decided to start with the MiG-19, continuing from my previous build a MiG-15. As you'd expect, the kit is simple, there are only 3 steps in the instructions and this particular kit can be completed with only 3 colours. There are options for 3 aircraft, 1 Soviet, 1 East German, 1 Cuban however they're all the same bare metal silver finish with a different set of decals for each one.

Despite the small parts count what there is, is good, and provides a reasonable little model straight out of the box. My main criticism of this kit was the way the missiles are attached to the wing as they were extremely awkward to attach given their size.

I decided to do my MiG in Cuban colours, I've applied many red star decals in recent weeks so felt it was time for a change! Overall it was nice relaxed build (forgetting the missiles...) and I'm certainly going to do more 1:100 scale aircraft in the future.

Overall Build Score: 2 out of 5, a fun but awkward build. Slightly lacking in detail as to be expected given the scale and age of the kit.