Completed Review - Airfix Hawker Typhoon Ib (A02041)

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £9.99

The last time I'd written about this build was prior to starting the decals. I'd decided to opt for the option depicted on the box art, that of Typhoon MP126, in the markings it carried when flown by Squadron Leader Gerald Stapleton of No.247 Squadron.

In past builds I've found the quality of Airfix's decals to be very good but I had some real problems with those included in this kit. I had several break up on me, including one of the serial numbers, without which I could not complete the build. I don't know if this was a one off, lack of practice on my part or if they were bad decals, although I suspect it was more a case of the first two rather than the latter. Fortunately I had a spare set and they were applied without any further bother, indeed that could said for the rest of the build.

Weathering was once again mostly done by applying Flory Model washes. My previous builds had been very dirty, using the Dark Dirt wash. This time I wanted to refine the weathering. For the undersides I applied a Grey Wash and then for the upper sides I mixed the Grey Wash with Dark Dirt (about a 2:1 ratio) and this gave a more subtle look, which was exactly what I was aiming for.

For the first time I attempted to use oil paints to apply oil streaks but found at this scale I couldn't really get a noticeable, and realistic enough effect. Exhaust marks were airbrushed using Tamiya Smoke, X-19, and dirt was applied to the undersides in small quantities using Flory Models Sand wash.

Again this was another excellent kit from Airfix which I thoroughly enjoyed building. It looks accurate in terms of the detail and shape, and there are two notable decal options. Once I slowed down and started taking some care it went together without any real problems. Although I deviated from the instructions, I don't think that's absolutely necessary, just take care with the flexible lower wing part and you'll be fine.

And that was about it. On a personal note I think this is the best model I've built so far, surpassing my previous build, the Airfix Defiant in the same scale. I think I achieved a more realistic finish, it just took me much longer than I would have liked.

Overall Build Score: 4 out of 5, an excellent release from Airfix with the full options, in-flight or on the ground, open or closed cockpit and pilot figure. Fairly straight forward to build, accurate and with interesting decal options, what more could you ask for?

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Looking Ahead: The Aircraft Wish List For 2017

Around this time of year you will no doubt be seeing plenty of "New Year Resolution" posts, this post is one and at the same time isn't one of those type of posts.

After last year in which I completed just one kit and suffered a significant loss of motivation I've taken some time to reflect on what I want to achieve this year and come up with an "ideal" world list (actually, it's 3 lists) which I'm hoping will give me a sense of direction but not be so strict as to become too much of a chore to complete.

I've decided to break down the builds into 3 categories, ideally if I can complete one build from each to a reasonably high (for me) standard then I'll consider 2017 a success. Realistically I need to tackle some of the kits I currently own before buying new ones, so some of listed won't become an option until I complete others.

Category 1: Out of the box builds

My, as of yet incomplete, Typhoon build showed me that I don't have to buy photo-etch and resin extras to actually have a build that is both enjoyable while providing a sense of achievement and progress at the same time.

We're very fortunate that these days we have a good choice when it comes to out of the box builds. As I want to build these models in flight, to keep things straight forward as possible, the Airfix range is ideal as they always seem to give you the option of both, something I wish all manufacturers would do.

• Airfix 1:72 Spitfire Mk.I/IIa (Owned)
• Airfix 1:72 Bf 109E-7/Trop (Owned)
• Airifx 1:72 Hurricane Mk.I (New Purchase)
• Airifx 1:72 P-51D Mustang (New Purchase)

Category 2: Detailed Builds

The next level of build involves a bit more detail, here I want to more work on the cockpit, either resin replacement work or photo-etch enhancement, or both. In such cases the canopy will be open so the aircraft will be modelled as it were on the ground and I will also consider building a display base.

• Eduard 1:72 Spitfire Mk.IXc (Owned)

There's only one aircraft in this list, however I own more than one of these kits so I could, if I excel myself, possibly build more than one of the same aircraft.

Category 3: Conversion builds

The final category is the most involved and challenging as it goes beyond the standard detailing and requires conversion work such as resin engines, super detailed interiors and so on. The kits I have in mind are:

• Tamiya Mosquito FB Mk.VI (Owned)
• Tamiya P-47D Thunderbolt converted to a P-47M (New Purchase)

As I've said this is an an "ideal" world list but I think it will be useful to look back after a year and see if this list helped me focus. Of course I won't just be building aircraft so there will still be builds that aren't on this list, and hopefully some miniature painting as well.

Time to get 2017 started then!

Build Review - Airfix Hawker Typhoon Ib (A02041) – Part 2

For me one of the main objectives of this build was learning to paint late WWII RAF colours correctly. My initial attempt on an Airfix Spitfire had not gone according to plan. Having finally built a Typhoon to my satisfaction I was determined that this time I would get the painting right.

I started by undercoating in a light Tamiya Grey and by pre-shading the panel lines with a flat black. I'm still not 100% convinced that this is worth doing.

Pre-shading

While it seemed to have some effect on the lower, and lighter, surfaces of this particular model it didn't really seem to make much difference on the upper, camouflaged, surfaces. Also I felt that with effect could also be achieved by post-shading and by washes later in the build.

On to painting proper and the undersides. The actual colour for the undersides of RAF aircraft is called Medium Sea Grey. To achieve this I used the following:

1. A base coat of Vallejo MA (Model Air) Barley Grey (71.051). I tried to make sure some of the black panel lines showed through.
2. Vallejo MA Pale Blue Grey (71.046) to the centre of each panel.
3. A thin coat, sprayed at lower pressure, of Vallejo MA Medium Sea Grey (71.049) to selected panel lines to add a slight bit of variation.

RAF Medium Sea Grey & Invasion Stripes

Another objective of this build had been the airbrushing of D-Day invasion stripes. Although this kit came with decals many don't so I thought this would be a good time to practice. The colours used were:

1. An mix of Vallejo MA White and Aged White (71.001 & 71.132). How much depends on how yellow you want it to look. This was applied over the whole area and then masked off in order for the black to be sprayed. It really pays to make sure the masking is tight here, especially in the numerous panel lines.
2. The black was Tamiya Nato Black (XF-69). I prefer using this shade of black at this scale as it's a muted black compared to the XF-1 Black which looks too bright to me.

And with that the lower surfaces were done. I hadn't done the rear invasion stripes yet, as they overlapped onto the upper camouflaged areas.

For the upper surfaces the RAF colours are Ocean Grey and Dark Green. I decided this time to use Tamiya's RAF colours as my starting point (XF81, 82 & 83). If you look the instructions for older Tamiya kits you will see they were all mixes. These are more recent paints which Tamiya brought out to be used with their 1:32 scale Spitfire kits

Starting with the Ocean Grey, this was applied all over and highlighted in the areas that wouldn't be covered with the Dark Green.

1. Tamiya Ocean Grey 2 (XF-82) was mixed with slight amount of Medium Sea Grey (XF-83). The main reason for adding the Meduim Sea Grey was that I felt the base surface with black pre-shade was a bit too dark. Without the pre-shade I would have probably used The Ocean Grey on it's own.
2. I then highlighted panel lines etc with Vallejo MA Barley Grey (71.051). Unfortunately the picture below was taken in bad light and doesn't really show this well.

RAF Ocean Grey

For the Dark Green:

1. I put down a coat of Tamiya Field Grey (XF-65) with a small amount of Dark Green 2 (XF-81). The reason for this was it muted the blue tones from the grey which I was spraying on top of. In previous attempts the green seemed a bit off if I just used XF-81 over the Ocean Grey.
2. I then highlighted the green by using Dark Green (XF-81) on it's own. Of course if you choose to spray each colour over the undercoat, rather than spray an all over Ocean Grey coat, you could probably use this colour on it's own.

RAF Dark Green & Invasion Stripes

The Sky coloured band was then added to the rear fuselage, this was simply Tamiya Sky (XF-21). The invasion stripes were painted the same as before. The one thing I will say is that I found the invasion stripes to the rear fuselage incredibly difficult to do. Getting them straight took numerous attempts due to the curvature of the surface I was applying them to and it used far too much masking tape. It was not helped by the fact that the whole model was masked at this point and fairly hard to judge their position when I had very little of the model exposed.

In the end I had to remove the excess paint with a wooden toothpick in order to get them straight. With hindsight I think would be better to do this first and then mask off the whole invasion band area and spray the camouflage around it.

Despite this last bit killing my enthusiasm for some time I have to say I'm satisfied with the result. I achieved the two things I wanted to, spraying accurate RAF colours and spraying the invasion stripes.

Now onto the decals.

Build Review - Airfix Hawker Typhoon Ib (A02041) – Part 1

As I'd mentioned at the end of a previous post I'd had a few issues when building Airfix's 1:72 Hawker Typhoon.

Source: (Lower Image) Hyperscale

The issues centered around the base of the wings, the flexible nature of this piece had meant that when it came to fitting the wheel covers, to depict the aircraft in flight, they wouldn't fit without considerable trimming and so looked quite untidy.

Out of curiosity I decided to open up another kit and see if they would actually fit prior to assembly and, as shown in the picture below, they clearly did.

This got me thinking, maybe there was a another way to build this kit, starting with the lower wings so I didn't make the same mistake again. And while I was at it, I'd photograph each step and share.

The Build

The first step was to attach the cockpit floor and the wheel wells to lower section of the wings. The wheel covers were then inserted from the other side. As I'd already established, the fit was perfect.

I then attached one side of the fuselage to lower wing piece and fixed the air intake into the correct position. From here on in I continuously test fitted the other side of the fuselage and the top side of a wing. In order to make sure the fuselage fitted there was a slight bit of filing required at the rear of the air intake and each time it snapped into place which meant care had to be take when removing it.

Next I assembled the cockpit on the half of the fuselage that wasn't attached to the wings. I remove the locating pins that would fix into other side as they weren't really need. This was because I continued test fitting to make sure everything was in place and that it hadn't moved from the correct position. Once the glue had set the cockpit was painted. If you're adding the pilot, as I was, then you will see next to nothing, especially given that Typhoon cockpits were painted black inside.


Once the pilot had been put in place, (I filled away his back and cut off his feet to make him fit cleaner), it was time to glue the second side into place. Just make sure the tail wheel and the clear light to the base of the aircraft have been put in place.

After allowing time for the glue to set I moved onto the wings. The gun bays were put in place, but as I was doing an in flight model these would be covered up by the top halves of the wings. I also made sure I drilled out the holes for the rockets launchers as there's no indication of their position of the exterior side of the wing.

And there we have it, both the top halves of the wings attached without any issues. I then added the flap to the base of the air intake just to finish things off. The instructions tell you to do this when joining the two halves of the fuselage but on both builds I found it to be far too awkward. It's much easier just to remove one the pins and slot it in later.

A minor bit of filling was required, the join at the base of the air intake is not the best. But after that it was all ready for some paint to be applied and that will be my next build post.

Too Many Shades Of Grey (And Green) - Late War RAF Camouflage

It now been a considerable time since I actually completed a model aircraft, 5 months in fact. One satisfying part of that particular build was that I finally managed to replicate the early WWII RAF camouflage scheme of dark earth and dark green.

So that just left the late war scheme, which replaced the dark earth, (brown), with ocean grey as the air battle moved out over the English Channel and beyond. Should be pretty straight forward you'd have thought, so with that in mind I decided to give it a try.

I decided I would try two kits at the same time, both built straight out of the box as the main objective was the colour scheme. The kits, Airfix's 1:72 Hawker Typhoon IIb (A02041) and the Sptifire MK.IXc (A02065A). I'd picked them both up at the Home Bargain Store in the UK which had been selling off Airfix kits for less than half price at £2.99 each.

As well as the RAF camouflage I also wanted to compare pre-shading and not, and I wanted to try airbrushing invasion stripes rather than using decals.

Before I could start on the exterior there was the small matter of the interiors, and there was quite a difference between the two. The Spitfire was absolutely basic, which was surprising for a kit released in 2009 and for a kit which actually had some nice exterior details and fine panel lines which couldn't be said for all Airfix kits at that time.

The Typhoon on the other hand seemed almost over engineered. The cockpit floor also consisted of the wheel wells. The instrument panel, rear panel, seat and air intake all had to be fitted between the two halves of the fuselage meaning it took several goes of adding a piece, letting it dry, adding another and so on. It certainly looks good, but it seemed like it required a little more effort that was perhaps necessary.

After that it was a case of assembling the wings. The lower part of the wings left awful joints at the sides of the air intake and a huge step at the rear which would require considerable filling.

So while all that filling and sanding was going on I decided to get on with painting the Spitfire (the Spitfire went together easily).

I started by pre-shading with Vallejo Model Air Black, 71.057 and then painted the undersides with Barley White 71.051 which was highlighted with thinned coat of Pale Blue Grey 71.046.

Moving onto the upper sides I couldn't really find a suitable shade for Ocean Grey so I mixed Tamiya XF-18, XF-21, XF-24 to a ratio of 1:2:2 and sprayed the whole topside. I then started on the green by using Vallejo Model Air 71.016 over sprayed with 71.017 as I'd used for my early war scheme. My reasoning was that RAF aircraft used the same green throughout the war so I could just re-use the previous colours.

But this didn't look right. Was it because I was spraying green over a grey base coat, rather than dark earth? Quite probably, so I tried to correct it and things then went from bad to worse. Then I realised actually my Ocean grey was too dark anyway. Time to get the paint stripper out.

How not to do RAF Camouflage

So once again, I'd failed with Vallejo Model Air colours and to be honest, I'm getting a bit tired of this. OK, so my Tamiya mix hadn't worked out either, I can probably correct that though. However I then realised Tamiya had extended their paint range and introduced three RAF late war colours, XF-81, 82, 83 so tomorrow I'm going to pick them up.

Still, at least I had the Typhoon to fall back on. Except there was a problem. It turns out that the lower wing piece I'd mentioned was quite flexible and so the wheel covers wouldn't fit without considerable trimming and I was planning on depicting the aircraft in flight.

Good thing I bought two Typhoons...

Kits I Want To Build - Aircraft

A few posts back I wrote about downsizing my stash in order to help me focus a bit more on what I’ve got and what I want to build in the future. A few kits have already been moved on and so now I thought I’d try and identify the aircraft I have an interest in, both from a historic point of view as well as well modelling point of view.

I have to confess it gets a bit difficult at this point, there’s still quite a lot of them. I had to stop eventually and that point was when I reached 25 aircraft, any further would be straining the credibility of the exercise.

So here’s the list, broken down into five categories. Four of these are Second World War categories, the first three being aircraft of steadily increasing sizes. A couple I have already built but would like to do again in different colour schemes, (Spitfire and P-51D) and so are not considered essential builds right now. Medium bombers present more of a challenge for me as a build although the Il-2 is looking like a distinctly possible build for the near future. Heavy bombers are the same plus I have to contend with the issue of displaying them due to their size so they’ve effectively been put to one side for now.

The WWII experimental fighter / jets category is pretty much a self-contained project that I’ve had in mind for several years now. It’s not been started yet, partly due to my inability to replicate RLM colours to a satisfactory likeness. I actually plan on writing further on this subject, but for now, like the heavy bombers, it’s been put to one side.

And finally we get to the Cold War era aircraft. Initially this interest was sparked by the late WWII jet fighters and by my Hobby Boss F9F-2 Panther build. And this is the point where I’ve decided to draw a line, just two kits will remain, and that’s because they’re really good kits with a whole load of extras that I don’t wish to part with at this time. I do have a couple of helicopter kits as well which I’ve excluded, and then there’s all the non-aircraft kits which are not with the scope of this post.

Does this help? Well looking at a list of 25, it’s still quite daunting. But the categories do help me prioritise a few builds, and then things look a bit better. With that in mind I’m going to get started on the WWII fighters list.

Completed Review - Airfix Boulton Paul Defiant (A02069)

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £8.99

This is probably the briefest review I've done; a few photos that I wanted to share with you followed by a quick summary.

This is fantastic kit, one of the best I've tried. Only issue I recall is for some reason the topside of the nose didn't quite line up. I've seen a few cases of this happening but it may just be down to how I fitted the cockpit. If you've had the same problem feel free to let me know.

The model was painted with Vallejo model air paints, I followed the steps I used in my Airifx Hurricane quick build. Panel lines and weathering were done with Flory Models' Dark Dirt and Sand washes.

The markings of this aircraft come from the dogfight double set (A50170) and are those of the highest scoring Defiant crew, Sergeants Ted Thorn (pilot) and Frederic Baker (gunner).

Eduard photo-etch was used for interior details and the gun barrels came from Master Models of Poland. That reminds me, the reason why I had to replace the guns was that the plastic ones are really difficult to remove from the sprue and in my case I snapped them. Montex masks were used during painting, I wouldn't recommend them for this kit as they don't really hold on the curved turret part (not too bad on the flat parts though).

As always you can keep up-to-date with all my builds on my Instagram page.

Overall Build Score: 4.5 out of 5, another excellent release from Airfix. The shape is finally correct and aside from slight fit issues and the poor turret guns the kit builds very well. The individual boxed version offers you the choice between the aircraft's two main roles, the early day and then the later night fighter. In addition the canopy, raised or lowered fairing, and landing gear options ensure you have all possible configurations available to build. The aircraft itself may have been considered a failure but this kit is a triumph!

Completed Review - Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb/Mk.Vb Trop (60756) - Part 2

Continuing from Part 1, let talk about decals. In fact, bear with me, I'm going to rave about a decal sheet. Yes really!

The decals in question are from Xtradecal, set X72187. I have never seen such a comprehensive set of decals with an equally comprehensive instruction sheet.


This particular set contains decals for a Spitfire Mark 5s only, there are a total of 12 options, from both the European and African theatres. As well as roundels and identification numbers there's a huge number of stencils and demarcation lines. I think, if you choose carefully, you can probably get five or six complete aircraft from this set.

Application was fairly straight forward although some of the long and very thin decals for the "don't walk" lines pushed my decal skills to the limit. It took me the best part of a week (in the evenings) to apply them, mostly, due to the number of them.

Now in previous builds this would be me about done, but with this build I'd decided it was time to raise my game. I wanted the panel lines to show and some weathering, especially as this was an aircraft in use and in flight.

After spraying the whole model with a gloss coat it was time to apply a wash. The wash I'd chosen was from Flory Models. After watching the tutorial video on their website, several times, I got stuck into the whole wash process. The actual moment of applying the wash is well captured in my Instgram post taken at the point where I was really wondering what I'd done.

However, it all turned out well and so the build was complete. For me it was most satisfying, the kit was excellent and I'd managed to move my modelling on to the next level. It's no competition winner but for me it marks a significant step forward. Take a look at the pictures below and see what you think.

With the final picture I'm reminded of something I'd forgot to previously mention. This kit doesn't allow for a "wheels up" option. The wheels you see actually come from an Airfix kit (the one I sacrificed as a paint tester) and they fitted perfectly.

And so onto the final matter of my score for this kit

Overall Build Score: 4.5 out of 5, another excellent Tamiya kit as to be expected. A good choice of variants exemplified by the 3 types of air filters and 2 canopies included in the box. If I had to pick a fault it's the lack of choice when it comes to portraying the aircraft in flight.

Build Review - Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb/Mk.Vb Trop (60756) - Part 1

Time to get back on track with my aircraft building, where better to start than with another Tamiya kit. The kit, Tamiya's 1:72 Spitfire Mk.Vb/Mk.Vb Trop (kit number 60756) in a North African colour scheme.

Assembly, as so often it the case begins with the cockpit and the two halves of the fuselage. For a change I'd decided not to use a photo-etch set, this model was going to be in flight and so a pilot would be filling the cockpit space. Having said that I think the interior of the kit was reasonably well detailed as is, you can see from the picture below.

The out of the box interior

Cockpit & (Airfix) pilot

The pilot figure was taken from my spares box, in this case an Airfix pilot. Tamiya, for some reason, don't include pilot figures in their 1:72 kits (although this may have changed since their latest F-16 releases at this scale). I find this a little odd, as the 1:48 scale kits, of which some of the 1:72 scale kits are scaled down versions of, do contain pilot figures.

With the insides painted, using a home-brew interior green mix, it was time to assemble the two halves and the cockpit.

This was done by gluing the two halves together and pushing the cockpit assembly up through the bottom. This works well and prevents an uneven cockpit. By comparison I was building an older Airfix Spitfire at the same time. This model used the typical method of trying to glue a floor piece in-between the two halves and it sank leaving it uneven and consigning the model to being used for testing paint colours.

I decided that as this was a model in flight it would need to look used and so wanted to use the hairspray method of weathering and so selected areas were sprayed silver.

To be honest this didn't really work and I'm at a bit of a loss as to why. Not enough hairspray? Too much paint over the top? Either way, in the end only a small part of the wing roots weathered but it look OK. The rest was touched in using a Citadel silver paint.

On to the painting, starting with the underside. I used Vallejo's UK Azure (71.108) but felt that this was too blue. I over sprayed that with a 50/50 coat of UK Azure and Pale Blue Grey (71.046) and this seemed to be a better match.

I've written before about problems with the accuracy of Vallejo's colours and once again this proved to be an issue. I had bought the Vallejo RAF Desert colours box set and that was why I'd chosen a desert colour scheme. However the colour were, once again, not even close. I tried mix after mix with no success before giving up and deciding to use Tamiya paints. This for me wasn't a decision taken lightly as I'd had mixed success with Tamiya paints, finding them too watery, especially combined with my masking.


However my fears were unfounded, I managed to use them and use them well (for me). No paint leaked under my masks which was result! So Vallejo's loss is Tamiya's gain, in the future I won't be quite so afraid of using them.

Colours were straight from instruction sheet. Middle stone sprayed over the whole upper surface, this was a 1:1 mix of XF-59, Desert Yellow and XF-60, Dark Yellow. I then masked of the areas that were to retain this colour and over sprayed the Dark Earth colour. This too was a mix, 1:1 of XF-52, Flat Earth and XF-64 Red Brown.

With the painting done, the next step was the decals, which I'll write about next time.