A Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools (Or Does He?)

I have a confession, until today I've not really enjoyed airbrushing. The prospect of getting the airbrush out has filled me with dread but I know I have no choice as brush painting isn't an option either.

I've been using a single action Badger airbrush and despite thoroughly masking I found that the airbrush tended to blast lots of very wet paint over a model and that usually resulted in paint seeping under my masks. Experimenting with different amounts of thinner in my paint didn't even help and to be honest I just couldn't see how I was ever going to be able to do camouflage patterns or indeed anything more than simple colours.

Little did I know the answer to my problems was sitting forgotten in a cupboard. A while ago my father had given me double action airbrush that he didn't need. However at the time the top feed didn't appeal to me (I couldn't put it down once it had paint in it) so I'd decided not to use it.

The old...

... and the new

So earlier I decided I had nothing to lose and I gave it a go. What a difference! First of all it atomises the paint so much better so I get that fine mist of paint which I could never get with the old one. Also I can control the flow much better and paint much smaller areas. Finally, the top feed works well and I find myself using much less paint.

It made such a difference and I feel really optimistic now about what I can do in the future. Camouflage schemes will, (with a bit practice), be achievable!

So just to show what a difference it makes, here's two aircraft painted in an afternoon. One is my Tamiya P-51D build the other started out as a practice but will now be completed. A review will hopefully follow but until then see if you can guess what it is.

Finally, this may not seem like much to the more experienced modellers out there, but I'm quite pleased with this this. My first ever airbrushed canopy, unthinkable until now!

Build Review - Tamiya's F-51D Mustang (built as a late WW2 P-51D) - Part 1

It's been a while since I last looked at my Christmas Mustang project. The Academy P-51B Mustang, Old Crow, (kit #1667 or #12464) is now at a stage where's it's been painted and is ready for the decals to be applied. However before I do that I thought I'd get the Tamiya kit that I'd planned on building to the same stage.

You may remember I planned on converting the F-51D to a late Second World War P-51D, one flown by Charles Weaver of the 357th Fighter Group, named "Passion Wagon".

As previously mentioned I was to replace the kit decals (which had perished) with a set from Kits-World (set #2049) and the cockpit with a resin set from CMK (#7172).

So to start with I had to build the cockpit. The set from CMK provided a nice cockpit but as there were no side walls (unlike a lot of the resins sets from Aires) I didn't initially feel it offered much more than the part it was replacing. However where it came into it's own was the highly detailed seat, the photo-etch parts and the instrument panel. These did eventually make enough of a difference to convince me that this set was worth buying.


The resin parts fitted well, but I did need to remove the rear wall from the original cockpit piece as a rear wall wasn't included. I found the best way to do this was to glue the resin cockpit to one of the sides, let it set and then added the plastic rear wall and then finally the radiator. Each time I also dry fitted the other side of the aircraft to ensure that when I finally put them together they did indeed fit!

It should be noted I've since removed the seat to make masking the cockpit that bit easier

So initial thoughts are the main difference between this kit and the Academy kit was that there weren't any of the frustrating fit issues that you get with the Academy kit. The Tamiya kit appears to have been made with that slight bit of extra precision. Of course you are going to pay more for this but I'm slowly coming round to thinking that the extra cost is worth it for less hassle when assembling.

Reviews and the Scores

Back at the beginning of this blog I wrote I wrote about how I would review kits. One of my readers recently wrote to me asking how I score my reviews, so I thought I'd just add a quick post to show you exactly how I score built kits and in-box reviews.

With built kits I give a score out of 5. Generally I will try and finish a kit before scoring although sometime for whatever reasons a kit doesn't get finished.

There are 5 points categories, with either 0, 0.5 or 1 point being awarded for each. They are:

• Decals / Colour Schemes - Ease of use of decals, colour scheme options and number.
• Detail - Accuracy of models, detail of individual parts, quality of sprues.
• Build - Ease of build, quality of instructions.
• Value - Quality and price based on the recommended retail price (not necessarily the price I bought it for).
• Bonus - Extras points for offering something new, ground-breaking, unusual or just for being an extraordinary kit.

If kit decals aren't used then I will judge the available colour schemes, not the replacements. The same applies for extra details from third party manufacturers.

So in the case of my last review the final score of 2 was reached by scoring the following:

• Decals - 0.5, two nice options but the decals themselves were a bit too thick for my liking.
• Detail - 0.5, reasonable level of detail, let down by the inaccurate front wheel and sparse interior.
• Build - 0.5, possibly a bit generous as the review mentions the numerous fit issues but I did mange to complete the kit despite them.
• Value - 0.5, fairly good value but there are of course better kits (but not P-39s) available in this price range.
• Bonus - 0, nothing really stood out. I contemplated a half point for the option to open the cockpit door but realised open canopies are pretty much standard on all kits.

For the in-box reviews I use the following scores:

•  Avoid - says it all really!
• Average - The basics are there but you'll probably want to consider this kit as a starting point and purchase extras for it.
• Promising - Looks good, could probably be built out of the box or with extras. Either way it's up to you!
• Outstanding - A top of the range kit with everything you need to create an excellent model.

So there it is, I hope that help when reading my reviews in the future. Feel free to let me know if you want any further information about a particular review.

Completed Review – Academy P-39N/Q Airacobra (2177) – Part 4

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £6.99

So 7 months have passed since I last looked at Academy's P-39N/Q Airacobra and finally, half-heartedly, decided to finish this project off.

I previously stated that I like Academy kits, they might be cheap but they tend to pack in a reasonable amount of detail for the price. However at the budget end of the market the new Airfix range seem to be surpassing them and after completing Airfix's A6M2b Zero I somewhat lost my enthusiasm for the Academy kits in my stash.

With this particular kit it was the fit issues which almost killed it off. The cockpit was difficult to fit and the two halves had a particularly ugly join which spoilt the whole model. I was also going to attempt to remodel the front wheel to be the correct size but in the end decided to leave it as it is. On the plus side I did like the option of modelling the cockpit door open, however to do so meant you really need to purchase a third detail kit (in my case one from Eduard which was to the usual high standard).

So here it is. I'm not really proud of this one, I just wanted it finished so I could move on to something else.


I combined this kit with the decals from the ancient and awful Airfix kit but really I find hard to recommend either kit. Here's hoping to Airfix issue a newly tooled P-39 to match the standard of their most recent releases!

Overall Build Score: 2 out of 5, too many fit issues and a lack of attention to detail spoil what had the potential to be a very nice budget kit.

Better Than Watching Paint Dry! Tamiya 1:48 Africa Corps - NCOs

I've been trying to fill time between coats of paint on my current aircraft project with some figure painting, better than just waiting for paint to dry!

Recently I've been trying to work out which scale and type of models give me the most enjoyment. Heroic 28mm has obviously been one option; I do have a sizeable collection waiting to be painted. I've also considered 1:72 scale but found at that scale the models lack the character of larger scales. So eventually I found myself painting a couple more of Tamiya's 1:48 scale Africa Corps.

The latest additions are two NCOs, fairly straight forward in terms of uniform to paint.

I find it really enjoyable painting figures at this scale and will certainly do more. It's a shame there are more figures available. Tamiya's figure sets are good, there's just not many of them. Beyond them I'm only really aware of figures to accompany aircraft models (pilots, mechanics etc). If you, my readers, have any other recommendation please let me know in the comments below. It'll be much appreciated!