The Hamfisted Modeller

Saturday, 28 May 2016

1/144 Handley Page Victor B.2 - 100 Sqn Royal Air Force - 1963

I've always loved the Victor, it's my favourite of the three V bombers and I reckon it's till looks modern today.

I built this as it looked like a quick and simple build. And it pretty much was. I learnt a couple of things for when I build another, next time will be a K.2 tanker refuelling a Vulcan.

I didn't bother weathering this as I wanted to finish it for the NSW model show at the start of May. I couldn't be bothered returning it after the show.

The Kit

1/144 Great Wall Hobby Victor B.2

Aftermarket

None - this is straight from the box

Painted with

Gunze Lacquers for the main colours
Tamiya Gloss Coats
Testors Dullcoate
Vallejo and oils for the details

Weathered with

Oil wash

The Name Plate

This was supplied by a modelling mate, Clayton. Check out his Facebook page - The Workbench and/or his Web Site - Also called The Workbench . He's a great modelling and pretty nice guy as well.

Build threads

Aussie Modeller
Kiwi Modeller
BritModeller

The Pictures

Sunday, 17 April 2016

1/48 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero - 251st Naval Airgroup - Solomon Islands 1943

Built this as a quick build to get over the long haul of the F-4EJ.

The kit builds pretty well , the only area I had a little trouble with was the fit around the lower nose right at the front.

This aircraft was originally painted in overall grey green but then had a rough over spray of the dark green. Here's an image from Wikipedia

I tried to duplicate this but I didn't see the above image until I'd nearly finished so I don't think I really got there. Still it's good enough for the cabinet.

The kit comes with 5 really nice figures so I thought I'd have a go at painting 1 up. The base is a cheap $3 frame. I added the grass matt and added some mud/dirt along with bit of foliage to break it up a bit.

The Kit

1/48 Tamiya Mitsubishi A6M3/3a Zero (Zeke) Kit No 61108

Aftermarket

None - this is straight from the box

Painted with

Gunze Lacquers for the main colours

Tamiya Acrylics for the interior

Testors and Tamiya Gloss Coats

Testors Dullcoate

Vallejo and oils for the details

Weathered with

Various Oils, Pigments, Pastels and Tamiya Weathering sets

Build threads

BritModeller

The Pictures

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

It's Not Easy Being Green - 1/48 Hasegawa F-4EJ Phantom Goodbye Okinawa

Well it's bright and it's done.

This is my second Hasegawa Phantom depicted as a jet (37-8322) of 302 Hikotai based at Naha Okinawa in December 2008. It was specially painted to commemorate the trasnfer of the unit to Nyutabaru after 24 years on the island. The aircraft was scrapped 3 months later in March 2009.

Lessons Learnt

Not all Hasegawa Phantoms are the same. Even though the Sprues for the Wings (sprue L) and Fuselage (sprue J)are labelled the same there are 2 different versions of the same sprue depending on the boxing.

As such I really should have used the F-4EJ Kai boxing, which has the proper fuselage and wings with the correct antennas.

My biggest disappointment was the Wolfpack resin nose. I wasn't happy with the depth of the lines /detail so I re-scribed it, and didn't do a good a job. I'm not sure what it offers over the kit nose to be honest.

A close second was the True Details Pylon's, The engraved detail in these is pretty fine (non existent) and also needed re scribing.

Thirdly was the colours chosen by Model Alliance for the bright green decal text. It's nothing like Tamiya X-15, which seems to very closely match the green on the actual aircraft.

Enough rambling, onto the details

The Kit