Build Review - Hobby-Boss F9F-2 Panther - Part 1

One of my my objectives for the year had been to build an early Cold War era jet in 1:72 scale. I'd originally expected to build Tamiya's F-84, however this kit from Hobby-Boss caught my eye, especially when I saw it for sale for just £4!

I'd previously only attempted one of Hobby-Boss's Easy Kits and so thought this would be a good time to try a "proper" kit and was pleasantly surprised at what it had to offer. On the sprues the parts looked detailed and sharp and there were two decal options, one Korean War era US Navy aircraft and one later Argentinian Navy option, presumably one that was sold off when the US decided they no longer needed them.

A while ago I'd removed a few parts from the sprue and have to say the sprue layout was not the best. There were several badly placed sprue tabs attached to awkward locations, in some cases attached to the very thinnest parts of the kit. This made the parts fairly difficult to remove without damaging them.

But that aside it was time to get started, and where else, but with the cockpit. In this case I was to enhance it with Eduard's self-adhesive zoom set (SS398). There were some fantastically small but detailed parts but I felt with the bubble top canopy it was worthwhile as most of this would be visible. I have to say the self-adhesive sets haven't been as adhesive as I'd expected them to be. On flat surfaces they will stick, elsewhere I found I needed glue.

Paint wise, I brush painted with my now custom interior green Citadel paint mix.

I'm sure you'll agree, it looks really good, well worth the effort!

Review - Vallejo Model Air

RRP - £16.99 (8 colour set), £31.99 (16 colour set)

Time for something a little different, a paint review. Vallejo's model air range are specially designed for airbrushes and to be honest I'm lost for words...!

Overall Score: Incredible, so easy to use, just perfect!

 
OK so in all seriousness I tried these out of curiosity, partly because I didn't feel like mixing Tamiya paints to get RLM (Luftwaffe) colours when I could get them ready mixed. Typically the 8 colour set consists of 6 colours, a matt varnish and thinner.

I've tried the Model Colour range, for brush painting, and I was not impressed so wasn't expecting much. The Model Air paints themselves seem to have a resin like texture which means they flow nicely and are not too wet. For me they've been an absolute revolution and have had as big an impact on what I can do as changing my airbrush did.

I've found that camouflage patterns are much easier to do with paint that is less "wet." And just to show, the picture below took me very little time to do.

The more eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the model in question is Airfix's 1:72 Bf 109E-4, I'll write more about that later. I'm making plans to retire my Tamiya paints and starting to replace them with the Vallejo Model Air range so I'll leave you with an interesting video on airbrushing with Vallejo paints.

19/03/2015 - There's more that needs adding to this post, a disclaimer!

Building a 1:72 Scale Base

Just a quick post to show a base I've been working on for my Tamiya P-51D. I decide that I wanted to add some context to the model, rather than just having it standing on a shelf on it's own.

So the base of my base was one of Trumpeter's display cases, the 170mm square one. To this I added some very fine sand, airbrushed brown. Then I added several packs of Bregun's 1:72 PSP Marsden matting. This proved to be somewhat awkward, if you want to use this stuff then I recommend a smooth surface, the fine sand made it hard work.

I airbrushed another coat of brown paint over the whole base, a slightly lighter shade than before before drybrushing the PSP with Citadel Chainmail. Then the PSP was washed heavily with brown Citadel inks ensuring all the holes in the PSP were brown rather than silver. Oil stains were added by leaving a large pool of brown ink to dry.

Then I added brown flock around the PSP and green static grass. Wheel chocks were made from a wooden cocktail stick, the paper drop tanks were from my spares box (probably from an Academy kit).

Finishing touches included a tool box and tools from Bregun and the pilot figure which came from CMKs USAAF Korean War pilots set (F72 110). The CMK figure was nicely detailed for the scale, I highly recommend this set.

So far I'd say it's about 90% done, just a few more bits to add. So to finish this post, a few pictures with the P-51D Mustang.

Completed Review - FineMolds TIE Fighter - Part 2

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £24.99 (UK import price)

So back to blogging after a break and where better to start than with the FineMolds TIE Fighter. In my previous build review I pretty much covered how well this kit went together, so there isn't much more to say. I will make a quick mention of the masks that were included with the kit for the glazed parts, these were excellent and the decals went on without any problems, despite their small size.

Really all that's really left to do is show some pictures of the finished model.

If you read the my earlier posts, (the build review and this one), then it's not going to come as much of a surprise when I tell you that this is a fantastic kit. Beautifully detailed, authentic looking (when compared to the original film models) and all at a sensible scale. And to top it all off it goes together remarkably well.

The only difficultly for me was understanding the Japanese instructions, but as this kit was only intended for release in the Japanese domestic market that's completely understandable.

Simply put, this is, without doubt, this the best kit I've built to date. Yes, it even out-preforms my favourite model company, Tamiya!

Overall Build Score: 5 out of 5, an essential build for sci-fi modellers (and others). Perfection in model form, a kit that's well thought out, well engineered and true to its film roots in every way.

What's On The Workbench? #3

Bit of quick post, so what's on the workbench at this time?

Well of course Fine Molds 1:72 scale TIE fighter is nearing completion, I'm just itching to write my final review but it's not quite done yet.

Hopefully one day of good light at my desk can see the final details painted and the decals on. But trust me, this one's worth the wait!

Apart from that, I have started work on something else, between coats of paint on the TIE fighter. I'll reveal exactly what in a later post.

But for now a sneak preview, it doesn't exactly fall together thanks to some interesting choices for the sprue runners...

D-Day 70th Anniversary (& Invasion Stripes)

Today of course is the the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Rather than modelling I've been reading numerous articles and looking at many photos of this historic day and one particular photo has caught my eye, from a modelling perspective.

Reading the account that goes with the photo it tells how ground crews were only told the night before that they had to paint invasion stripes and so used anything from paint brushes to brooms to get the job done. And then, of course, being England there was a storm and it rained all over their paintwork...

So from a modelling perspective I was wondering. Is this the one time when we modellers don't want a fine airbrush finish? Would a rough brush finish actually turn out a more accurate model?

Build Review - FineMolds TIE Fighter - Part 1

Time for an update on FineMolds 1:72, a kit which appears on my to-do list for the coming year.

Upon opening the box it's one of those kits where you instantly notice the detail. The parts are full of little details, which is probably down to FineMolds having access to the original production models from the Star Wars films.

So naturally, I was keen to get started, and like any aircraft build you start with the cockpit, and in this case the excellent little pilot model. The cockpit consists of front and back halves, a floor and two inner side walls and then the pilot, his seat and controls. The side walls are painted black and then decals are added to give the red interior effect (I believe these are moving dials in the film, but it's been such a long time since I've seen them that I may be mistaken).

The rest of the interior is coloured grey, I used Tamiya's XF-53, neutral grey and dry-brushed with various Citadel greys to add a bit depth. The pilot is all black, again dry-brushed to bring out the details. FineMolds also give you some decals for his helmet and shoulder pads which are tiny! With these added he was ready to be seated.

All this went together smoothly, the fit is excellent, clip the front half on and the cockpit was pretty much done. There is a clear panel for the front but I decided to leave this off and paint it separately and so just masked the cockpit front as it was.

Next up were the wings. I believe the technical term is solar collector arrays so forgive me if I refer to them as wings from now on. These consist of a flat panel and then two frame pieces which clip onto either side. The flat panels were sprayed with Tamiya's XF-69, Nato black. I them picked out a few sections and over sprayed them with XF-61, German grey to add a bit of contrast.

After attaching the frames to the panels it was time to fix them to the cockpit and here I encountered my first (minor) problem. The fix initially seemed a bit lose and had me wondering how I would get then to settle at the correct angle. It was only then that I realised I had to apply more pressure and then the wings snapped into place. In fact, they fitted so firmly I doubt glue would be needed to hold them.

I think there may well be something in the instructions to tell you all this but the instructions are completely in Japanese. This is because this model, and the license, are only for the domestic Japanese market and so there's not a word of English to be found like you find in so many other Japanese kits.

And there you have it, in no time at all a TIE fighter built, next up would be painting it which I'll cover in my next post.

Cold War Jets at RAF Bruntingthorpe

Yesterday I decided to head out to RAF Bruntingthorpe, with a friend of mine, to visit a Cold War Jets open day. Partly I wanted get a bit of inspiration for my Cold War jet goal which I've set myself for the next year as well as see the jets in action. The day features various jets from the era doing taxi runs along the runway at Bruntingthorpe, but no take-offs, so that spectators can get much closer to the aircraft than they would at a normal air show.

As we'd arrived their early we were able to get out onto the runway where a couple of the larger aircraft, a Handley Page Victor, a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and an English Electric Canberra were getting ready for their runs. The Victor has become famous locally, after an accidental take off back in 2009 so I grabbed a few quick photos before heading over to the Canberra.

Handley Page Victor

The crew of the Canberra were kind enough to let me grab a few photos of the cockpit through the entry door, hopefully they'll prove to be useful should I decide to model one at some point in the future.

English Electric Canberra

Next up was the Blackburn Buccaneer, since my last visit the collection seems to have acquired a few more which was good to see, including one in a Gulf War (the 1990's) desert camouflage scheme which of course was the last time the RAF Buccaneers were used in combat.


But of course, the highlight of this show are the two English Electric Lightnings that are based here which I've written about before. With the new releases from Airfix the Lightning is currently high on my wish list when it comes choosing a Cold War aircraft to build. I have to confess my photographs are better on my previous post so I'll leave you with a short video.

It's a lot louder than the video makes out, you might be able to tell from the reaction of the people in the crowd!

San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives

I don't usually post links on this blog to things I've found on the internet but tonight I'm making an exception.

Earlier I logged into flickr for the first time in a long time and suddenly one of my feeds was showing old photos of WWII bomber nose art. The feed led me to an album of photos of the 90th Bomb Group including this particular aircraft and it's crew, Moby Dick.

I had a feeling I recognised this aircraft, turns out I did, it's one of the Mission Centenarians that feature in the Eduard kit of the same name, (kit 2111), that I'd been looking at a few nights before.

Anyway, there a whole lot more, this album is one of many from the archives of the San Diego Air & Space Museum, check them out.

One Today - Miniatures In Detail's First Birthday!

It's one year today since this blog started so I thought I'd spend a bit of time reflecting before looking forward to the next year. The intention of this blog was to chart my return to scale modelling and at that it has succeeded. It was certainly a mixed year, a wide range of projects were attempted, there was a mix of success and failure.

Highlights included Tamiya's F/P-51D which I believe is my best build to date and Airfix's A6M2b Zero which came just at a time when I felt I was never going to get anywhere. There was also the unexpected return to fantasy miniatures and a first try at 1:48 scale military figures which I hope will lead to future projects.

Success!

Outside of this blog I've have been surprised by the success of my Pinterest page which I've been using to link to inspiration photos and articles I've found on the internet while researching projects.

As for the lowlights, there were a few failed projects, but the main one was my failure to complete all but one of the models I mentioned in my first post (two were started and subsequently abandoned, two remain un-started). This was partly due to my inexperience and not really having much focus, essentially I based this to-do list on what kits I had available at the time.

Failure! One out of five completed, two half completed...

I think part of the reason was that I wanted to attempt so much that I never really found any focus for the majority of this year, but this period of discovery has led me to realise that I'm finally finding areas of interest.

So what are they? Aircraft wise, I found a growing interest in US Second World War aircraft (but not just in US service), leading through to late war experimental aircraft and early cold war aircraft from all nations.

Which brings us back to the present day, with a clearer idea of what I like I can write another, hopefully more focused, to-do list for the coming year and be more successful this time round!

The To - Do List - 2014/15

In no particular order:

1. Another Tamiya kit, I want to carry on from my most successful build to date. A good part of that success was due to the fact I was building such a quality kit, it makes sense to build another.
2. An Eduard Profipack. After using Eduard detail sets for many of my builds it's time I tried the full package, Eduard plastic with Eduard photo-etch.
3. A Luftwaffe WWII experimental / jet fighter. A long time area of personal interest (I'll write more about that later) that I've yet to visit in model form.
4. An early Cold War era jet. A newer area of interest that has followed on from my interest in WWII jets. I'm aware I could chose Tamiya's F-84G Thunderjet (I've had my eye on it for a while now) and count this build towards No. 1 as well, but I would prefer that it doesn't.
5. A sci-fi scale model. Of course I'm hoping this will involve successfully finishing the Fine Molds TIE fighter which I couldn't resist starting a few days ago.

If I achieve some success with these targets, and time allows, then I'd like to attempt a 1:48 scale military project, probably starting out with a small vehicle to accompany the figures I've already attempted.

And finally I've like to at least continue painting miniatures. However I've found it difficult to stay inspired and focused so realistically I think I will be miniature painting between the modelling projects for now. At the moment I'm completely out of practice but who knows maybe this time next year, I'll be painting more of them as well as having completed plenty of scale model projects!

As for you my readers, I hope you've enjoyed this past year as much I have and I hope to continue sharing my journey with you into the next year (and beyond).

What's On The Workbench? #2

After my last post there was a certain inevitability that I'd have to follow it up with a build. So what's on the workbench?

It is of course, Fine Molds 1:72 scale TIE Fighter, I not going to say in this post, other than I'm loving this build so far.

I'll save the detailed report for when I complete this kit (assuming I can avoid any of the kind of disasters that have plagued my recent builds) and leave you a picture of a very small pilot and possibly the smallest decals you'll ever be likely to see.

Until next time.

Kits You Have to Build - FineMolds Star Wars Range

As today is of course Star Wars day and what could be more appropriate than a look at the world of Star Wars scale models.

When it comes to Star Wars then we're not exactly spoilt for choice. The Star Wars copyright is well protected and so licensed releases are few and far between. Here in Europe the main option is the Revell range which is predominately easy kits and pre-painted snap fit kits aimed at children rather than scale modellers. That leaves the Japanese company FineMolds. Here in Europe they're much harder to get hold of, but believe me they're worth the effort!

For me the original Star Wars was a key part of my childhood. I was fortunate enough that my parents bought me the Kenner toys that were released at that time, my favourites being the X-Wing and the TIE fighter which fought numerous duels around the house. Of course Star Wars back then was largely pre-CGI and so the the toys felt like models from the film, which brings me back nicely to FineMolds.

1:72 X-Wing box

I've seen these kits in the flesh and I have to say detail wise I felt like I had one the models from the films in kit form. The main reason for this is that FineMolds were given access, by Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, to the original production models. I believe in some cases you can recognize parts from Hasegawa kits etc, that were used to create the original models as FineMolds have replicated them so closely. They've also taken the sensible step of releasing fictional models in two scales that we're all familiar with, 1:48 scale and 1:72 scale unlike Revell who seem to have used a mixed bunch of weird and wonderful scales.

For me though the one I'd eventually want to build is the 1:72 Y Wing fighter. As a child this was my favourite of the fighters and it was one that I was never able to get (in the Kenner form) and so I'd love the chance now as an adult who's not quite forget the effect Star Wars had on him.

Manufacturer's complete model photo

Build Review - Snap-Fit Hit? Zvezda's Messerchmitt Bf-109F-2 (7302)

I said curiosity would lead me to try building Zvezda's 1:72 Bf-109F-2 and sure enough it did! So surprised was I by how the initial stages of the build went that I just had to share.

This kit is designed to snap-fit together without the need for glue, however I have decided that I wish to glue it and add some extras. But that doesn't mean I wasn't going to see just how well it fitted.

To start with I assembed the cockpit front and rear walls on the single piece that formed the wings, the idea is that you then push this up through the assembled fuselage and it all snaps together. I generally prefer models that provide you with wings in a single piece (where possible) because it eliminates the need for checking angles that comes from having two separate wings.

As you can see it's a nicely detailed cockpit. Although I did use Eduard's photo-etch set, (73475), I didn't feel the need to use the whole set. Once that was done I was ready to assemble the fuselage. I painted the side walls of the cockpit and made sure I didn't forget to add the tail wheel before joining the two halves. Here I elected to use glue, while the parts snapped together I wanted a sold join between the parts, that I wouldn't have otherwise got.

And then it was time to push the cockpit up through the bottom of the fuselage which turned out to be a really firm fit and it all clipped together perfectly.

Finally I clipped in the panel to the base of the wings which contained the wheel wells, couldn't be simpler. The only thing I didn't like was already the attached pitot tube as it's far to easy to bend or break.

So what are my thoughts? To start with I think I prefer this approach to easy kits compared to the Hobby Boss approach of few simple parts. The way Zvezda have engineered this kit leads to a really well thought out kit, intelligently engineered with easy assembly in mind. The bonus is that the detail doesn't have to be sacrificed this way. Plus it gives the modeller more freedom to build the kit in as easy or as complex a way as they feel comfortable doing.

Reading a lot of the modelling forums I see a lot of the more experienced modellers dismissing this kit because it's a snap-fit kit and it appears such a kit is beneath them. It's a shame that such thinking may cause some to miss out, in my opinion (and reflected in my approach) this hobby should be all about experimentation and trying out new things.

Like I said at the beginning of this post this is only the initial stage of the build so I will refrain from any thought of scoring until it's progressed further. But so far, so good!

Update (26th April 2014)

Unfortunately this kit, although very nice fell foul of my nemesis, Tamiya's XF-2 flat white paint. For some reason I find working with white paint (via spray, airbrush or even paint brush) to be extremely difficult and in this case so difficult it pretty much ruined the model.

Completed Review – Tamiya MiG 21 (61602)

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £3.99

A while back I attempted to build one of Tamiya's largely forgotten series of 1:100 aircraft, in this case a MiG-17 which if I'm honest was a less than impressive build. So as a result I've largely forgotten this series until I saw some for sale at the Shropshire Scale Model Show the other week. As they were selling for £2.99 each I thought I might well give them another go.

The MiG-21 is a fighter I've always found interesting, back from the days when aircraft designers still tried to build aircraft that resembled sci-fi rocket ships and so I was keen to see how this one would build.

Opening up the kit and the parts looked good, to my untrained eye it certainly looked like a MiG-21. There are a choice of 4 markings, (two Soviet, one Polish, one Vietnamese) all in silver, so in reality it's a case of painting it up and then just choosing which decals to apply.

As builds go it was absolutely straight forward as there aren't many parts at this scale. Cockpit detail consists of a seat, which once the canopy is on is all you'll see anyway. Apart from that you have choice of wheels up or down. Unlike the MiG-19 the missile pylons and missiles were much less of a struggle to attach which was a relief

 Paint wise I used a base coat of Tamiya AS-12 (spray) and then masked individual panels and airbrushed them with Tamiya X-11. This was mostly down to the fact that these two colours were only silvers I had! A coat of semi-gloss spray and then on with the decals, I decided to go for the Vietnamese variant.

As it happens I know a bit about this particular aircraft, 4326, it's one of several on display outside the Hanoi Aircraft Defence Museum, it's well known as a "Phantom Killer" and among its pilots it counts Nguyen Van Coc, the highest scoring ace of the war. It is actually a MiG-21PF and because the painting instructions weren't quite accurate I made some changes. I referred to the more accurate painting instructions for Academy's 1:48 MiG-21PF kit, of which this aircraft is one of the options to build.

The changes were, a dark green nose cone, and the fin at the rear (rather than black) and the cockpit colour which I changed to that awful Russian interior turquoise. It a shame there aren't any decals for the kill markings that adorn the nose of this aircraft, I guess this version will have to be an early version!

I really enjoyed this build, it was quick, fairly simple but still, the end result is a model that I think looks really nice when on display. It's now got me looking for one in my preferred 1:72 scale!


Overall Build Score: 3 out of 5, a simple and yet good looking kit that was a breeze to build. Let down only slightly by the lazy painting instructions.

Two Times One O Nine - In Box Review (Airfix & Zvezda)

Time for another dual-in-box review, this time I'm going to look at two variants of the ever popular Messerschmitt Bf-109 in 1:72 scale.

In my last comparison in box review I chose two models at different ends of the price scale. This time we're to look at two similar priced products (even though I do have a more expensive Tamiya kit in the stash). The kits are both newer releases, an Airfix Emil and a Friedrich from Zvezda.

Modellers really are spoilt for choice, all of the mainstream companies have released many 109s, and so I had to decide which to look at. I eliminated the Academy and Hasegawa kits early on because they have some serious shape issues, especially the Academy ones. The Tamiya kit is meant to have a better shape but a slightly short fuselage. I actually compared a Tamiya Bf-109E with the Airfix one and couldn't really see any issues myself. So in the end it came down to price, and as I mentioned earlier in this post, I thought I'd compare two similar priced models this time, both retailing at around the £7 mark.

The Airfix kit is once again one of their newer releases and so I now have high expectations whenever I get hold of one of these. The Zvezda kit is also a fairly recent kit, it is however a snap fit kit aimed at beginners.

Airfix Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4 (A01008)

Airfix's 109 soon followed on from their impressive A6M2b Zero which I reviewed previously. And as is the case with their new toolings there's a huge improvement on the older Airfix kits. This particular release follows the same format and like the Zero, looking at the parts makes you want to get on and build it.

Again Airfix decided to go with the single colour scheme option, which is OK I guess if you want to build that scheme. The scheme in question is that of an aircraft flown by Franz von Werra who was famous for becoming the first (and only) Axis prisoner of war to escape from a POW camp in Canada and return to Germany. Back to the decals and being ever so popular the 109 isn't short of 3rd party decal options if you feel like doing something different. If not then the ones with the kit look to be perfectly good quality Cartograf decals.

The actual aircraft in its "retirement"

Looking at the parts, they're full of nice details for a budget kit. There's an engine for a start, but don't get too excited as unfortunately it's slightly flawed. The machine guns have been cast into the cowling rather than above the engine, so you'll have to scratch build them if you want to display the engine (and remove them from the cowl). A plus point though is the flaps. Yes at 1:72 scale you have separate flaps, which means you can show them in the down position if you want, a very welcome addition I think.

So all in all, it's business as usual for the new invigorated Airfix, which is no bad thing. And again I'm impressed with what I see. I actually think in terms of quality it's comparable with the more expensive Tamiya kit at half the price.


Zvezda Messerchmitt Bf-109F-2 (7302)

"My first model kit" the box proclaims (in Russian). This is a snap fit kit which seems to turn more experienced modellers away, and you know what, I think they might be missing out.

I opened this box and was actually surprised by what I saw, this is beginners kit with plenty of detail. Realistically it's competing with the likes of Hobby Boss's easy kit range which retail at about £1 less. But rather than going for the low parts and less detail approach Zvezda have gone for more parts, more detail but no glue approach.


And you know what? I'm really intrigued by this approach. I guess the only real question if will it actually "snap fit" and we'll have to wait until I build it before we know the answer!

There's side wall detail, cockpit floor details, an option of using a flat instrument panel with a decal or a painting a raised detail one. In the Hobby Boss easy kits you get none of this. You also get a nicely detailed pilot option (moulded into a seat) which is good to see, or good to add to the spares box as decent 1:72 pilots seem hard to come by!

Looking at the decals, you get two options. One is a standard Luftwaffe camouflage scheme, the other an all white Eastern front scheme which is a refreshing change (and obviously influenced by Zvezda being a Russian company). As for the quality, in my particular box, (and it may just be a case of this one, rather than all) they don't look too good I'm afraid. So much so that before committing to a colour scheme I have sought out a "Plan B" just in case they don't work out.

One final note is oddly enough the packaging. The bigger Zvezda kits come in rough card boxes with no plastic bags and on several occasions I've found the contents to be broken as a result of this final lack of quality control. These easy kits appear to be more tightly packed and I'm pleased to say damage free.


So which to buy?

Tough choice, really there's nothing between them and of course I've already bought them both! So I guess the real question is which to build first? In this case Airfix fully met my (now high) expectations which means my curiosity may well lead me to build the Zvezda kit first, just so see how it performs.

Airfix Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4 - Overall In Box Score: Promising. Excellent value, excellent detail. Looks like you can't go wrong with this one.

Zvezda Messerschmitt Bf-109F-2 - Overall In Box Score: Promising. Such detail! Outperforms its easy-kit competitors and holds it's own with regular kits.

So if you have a preference as to wanting to build an Emil or a Friedrich then I say choose the one you want as these both look like excellent offerings. Otherwise the Airfix kit slightly edges out the Zvezda kit at this stage. But don't discount Zvezda's offering, it's a really good looking kit.

What's On The Workbench? #1

What's on the workbench?

Due the (chaotic) way I approach my modelling it means that I'm usually working on numerous things and completing only a few of them. Of course they're the ones this blog tends to focus on and the others, they get left behind. This means that as far as the blog has been concerned it sometimes appears that I'm doing nothing at times!

With that in mind I've decided to take a look at some of currently in-progress models that I'm working on and maybe this'll be a more regular feature of this blog.

First up is a purchase from last week's Shropshire scale model show, Tamiya's 1:100 scale MiG-21.

I been a bit undecided about this range since building the MiG-17, however I saw several of these kits for sale at £3 each and thought I'd have another try. So far I have to say the MiG-21 looks a better kit than the MiG-17. The main purpose of this build will be, at a later date, practising shading and weathering a model with a metallic finish.

Next is Tamiya's 1:48 Citroen 11CV, a classic car of the WWII era.

I've been thinking of branching out in quarter scale vehicles for a while but wasn't good enough with an airbrush to paint them. I'd picked this kit up from a local model shop's closing down sale many months ago and stashed it away since then. Rather than going full on into tank building I thought this would be a good starting point for me to familiarise myself with vehicles in this scale, with the added bonus of already enjoying figure painting at this scale.

As to be expected it's the usual level of detail I've come to expect from Tamiya. I hope I can do it some justice when it comes to painting it, my growing confidence when using an airbrush means that this is certainly more likely than it was when I first bought this kit!

Finally, a base. I really like seeing models on display bases and so thought I'd try creating an airfield base. I've used one Trumpeters display cases in this case.

I've added very fine sand onto a layer of PVA glue and now I'm waiting a few days for it to dry before attempting to add a coat of paint to seal it (and then finally drybrushing it). The PSP plates are from Brengun (1:72 scale) and hopefully they'll figure somewhere in the display.

So that's what's on my workbench! Until the next time.