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