Vintage Kit Build #2 - A Back to Basics Bank Holiday Build

As the somewhat long winded title suggests, the recent bank holiday weekend has have given me time to build something new, or more accurately, something old.

A while ago I was given a box full of old model kits. Most of them could be classed as "vintage." Many had missing parts, almost all had no decals and so I'd put them to one side and had not really thought about building them.

So this weekend I decided to pick one out. Airfix's 1:72 scale Hawker Hurricane Mk I/IIB, a series 2 kit (02042), The plastic dates from 1979 and this particular boxing, I believe, is from 1990. Although the box was slightly crushed, everything appeared to be there, apart from the decals which were beyond use. This wouldn't be a problem as I had a suitable decal set, for a Mk I, to replace them with.

As for the approach to this build, I decided to keep it simple, closer to how I'd have built a model during a childhood bank holiday weekend.

The kit itself is typical of the time, raised details, next to no interior. With this in mind I decided to build it in flight, with the pilot seated, to fill the otherwise empty cockpit.

Of course less detail, less parts, less to worry about when putting it all together. The only real issue was the propeller, it was a simple piece of plastic fitted between the two halves and was a bit wobbly when moved. Certainly no Tamiya poly cap here, but it's all part of the charm.

Once assembled I moved onto the painting. I was going for an early war green and brown (rather than the late war grey on the box art). I this is where I had a bit of an ulterior motive for this build, I want to try two things. First, to try spraying a two colour camouflage scheme for the first time. Second, to see how accurate the colours were in Vallejo's Model Air RAF day fighter paint set.

Starting with the undersides I used Vallejo Grey (71.103 - RLM 84). I then moved onto the topside, spraying the whole area with the Dark Earth (71.029). Overall I was pleased, these two colours looked fairly accurate and of course sprayed easily. A quick matt varnish coat was added, again Vallejo  and then I masked the model with Blu-tack and masking tape ready for the topside green.

Here things went a little awry. I used, after following the colour sheet advice, US Dark Green (71.016 - RLM 73, no really...!) and I was thinking, it looked a little brownish. Against better judgement I removed all the masking to find next to no difference between the green and brown.

(I apologise  for the lack of photos at this point, it's a bit wordy for a while but stay with me)

Of course at this point I re-masked and resprayed.... OK, so no, I didn't. In the spirit of the old-school childhood build approach I was going for I found a better green and brush painted over the green that was closer to brown. And I actually ended up with a much better match, result! Which green I hear you ask? Russian Green (71.017), although I should add that the colour I got obviously was achieved over painting US Dark green base so I'm not sure how accurate it'll be straight out.

Surprisingly with a flat brush, the finish on an older kit with raised details is non too shabby if I do say so myself.

That just left the decals. As mentioned I had a set of spares. They came from Plastic Planet Club's Allied Fighters in the Battle for Greece set which cost me about £4 (discounted, they should be about £7) and contains decals for a single version of four different RAF aircraft (a Hurricane, Gladiator, Blenheim and Beaufighter)

An OK little set for the price I paid, full price, I'm not so sure. The decals had a habit of curling up and needed a fair bit of persuading before they'd settle down.

Anyway, after that rather lengthy post, here's the final pictures.

A rather tidy build all things considered, and you know what? I had fun doing it, which is how it should be!

Vintage Kit Build #1 - The Worst Kit You'll Ever Build?

I’m going to start by saying I have fond memories of Airfix kits, I grew up making them. So imagine my surprise when I found out that this kit was exactly one of those kits I built as a child, it hadn’t changed! By today’s standards it’s a really bad kit, much as I like a bit of nostalgia I have to wonder why kits like this aren’t retired.

I would imagine that given its pric of £5.99 (I actually got mine for £1.99 a few months ago) it would be picked up by novices and I have to wonder how many would continue with the hobby after trying to build something like this. Airfix are producing wonderful kits with their recent releases (some of which we’ll be looking at soon) and I feel it’s such a shame for the brand if someone chooses this one and misses out on one of the others.

So what is it like? It’s basic, really basic. The cockpit consists of just a seat, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue given the thickness of the clear parts, you’ll never see inside this one.

The fit is deplorable, the base of the tail just doesn’t exist and so you’ll be sculpting it yourself. The wheel wells seem to contain plastic wedges which are presumably there to support the ill-fitting wheel covers should you choose to do an in-flight version. Add to this an instruction sheet that fails to mention adding weights to the nose to prevent it becoming a tail-sitter and the landing gear down  option is an equal recipe for disaster.

Next up, the marking options. The box clearly shows a P-39N (with guns mounted in the wing, not below as they were in the P-39Q). The marking diagrams also clearly show two options for a P-39N but the parts are for a P-39Q. I think this lack of attention to detail is just unforgivable.

 

Now despite this I’m not going to completely right off this kit, the decals look to be good quality and the colour schemes are interesting if you want to attempt a P-39N conversion. If you want a basic but inaccurate build straight out of the box then it can be done.

 

Mine will be pressed into service in my "Experimental"s, a special unit whose duties will include being painted and stripped, over and over. A task this one will perform admirably, I’m sure.