Airfix 1/72 Whirlwind - assembly

I had sliced off the gun camera housing, as it is placed too far out on the wing, and is really under the edge of the fuselage. So I had to find a new one... amd I found one inside this wheel...

In place, closer to where it supposed to be.

Cut out the wing tip lights, added some sprue as bulbs, painted, filled with super glue gel, sanded and polished up.

 

Added the gunsight to the cockpit..

 

Canopy attached, and the mirror added...

Mask up the canopy and wingtip lights, then on to primer and paint.

Happy Fill'n Sand

"The Stash"

Well this post on UAMF How Big Is Your Stash?  Inspired me to drag a laptop out to the garage and go through The Stash boxes, a grand total of 166 kitsets. I was expecting about a 100 so it was a surprise.

Certainly not huge, and I do have three kids who enjoy building a kit, so it certainly an er active stash, kits tend to cycle through.

Another surprise, was when I started playing with the data in Openoffice Calc, and found the most populous subjects:

• 9 Harriers, 
• 7 P-47 Thunderbolts, 
• 5 Lancasters,
• 4 each of F4U Corsair, Messerchmitt Me 109 and Junkers Ju188,
• 3 each of Lysander, Spitfire, Hurricane, F4 Phantom, Heinkel He-111 and Messerschmitt Bf110.

I was quite surprised at the number of Harriers, I would have said three or four, certainly not nine...

I have been collecting 1/72 P-47s for a couple of years, been trying to get one of each brand out there, so I knew there was a few.

An interesting exercise, its been worthwhile spending the couple of hours going through the boxes. Had a helping hand from one of the lads, which cost The Stash a F4 Phantom.

All the best, keep up Fill'n Sanding

Airfix 1/72 Whirlwind - fuselage and guns

Fuselage is together, and am adding the canopy perforated frames..

It should make a nice edge for the vac canopy to sit against, as well as adding a little detail.

Got the exhausts built, a half section of plastic tube, bend slightly, and then scraped for the narrow end.

Scratch built some replacement canon barrels, as well you can see the kit ones. Hypodermic needle barrels, with flattened copper wire as the recoil(?) spring, and very thin solenoid copper wire as the muzzle.

Keep Fill'n Sanding..

Airfix 1/72 Whirlwind - pilot and cockpit finished

Now the 109s are done, I'm back to the Whirlwind.

The pilot got finished up, paint, a Klear and water colour wash, dry brush, cables and straps added.

 

Then he was permanently added to the seat and cockpit added to the fuselage.

Just need to add a section of brass tube as a mount socket, and then the fuselage can be joined together.

More fill'n sand ahead..

Captured Bf109F NN644 -White 11 Finished

This one got to the point where I don't know what to do, so I'll just stick all the bits together...

The roundels, fin flash and serial are home made decals, see those horrible edges on the serial, need to figure out how to stop that on clear decals... the 11 and bomb were painted using frisk film as masks. I am officially a convert to frisk film for masking, be trying codes next.

Successfully used parafilm for the canopy masking, a pain to take off, and had to scrape with a tooth pick to get it off. I'm not a convert to paraflim, this is about the fourth I've done, and I'll be going back to tape edges and fill the rest with masking fluid. Or painted decal film as frames.

My normal airbrushed prop blur disk, I wasn't sure how it'd look on 48th but its a good un.

There's no wing pitot, because I didn't like the look of it, and it wouldn't last in our house...

I enjoyed the kit, my first foray into 48th for a lot of years, had a bit of trouble with the chin scoop, all my own fault, but a nice build.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers
Jim

Hoimann - Airfix Me109 G6 Finished

Hi all,

Well I'll call him done, I've got to that point, where I don't know what to do, so I'll just throw all the bits together..

Used painted clear decal film for the canopy framing, and my normal airbrushed prop blur disc. A fun build, but if I did another, I think I'd go for a Hobby Boss Easy Assemble kit one...

Thanks for looking
Cheers
Jim

Captured Bf109F NN644 -White 11 Part 9

Cut out some frisk masks, and sprayed the 11 and bomb insignia..

I'm definitely a new fan of frisk film, I'll be trying it out for other codes on future builds.

Airfix 1/72 Whirlwind - cockpit and canopy

Working on the cockpit and canopy mainly..

Vacformed the canopy, made three and picked the best one.

Added a little bit of detail to the visibles parts of the cockpit sides.

An instrument panel, punched discs of plasticard.

Pilot seat and rear decking, shopped the roll over off and made a new one form copper wire. A couple of rectangles of plasticard as the batteries, and a fairing of 5 thou card at the top of the roll frame.

Pilot in his office with a control stick.

Check of the clarity of the vac form canopy, I like worth the effort.

More Fill'n Sand ahead..

Captured Bf109F NN644 -White 11 Part 8

Dark Green and Decals are on..

The decals worked really well, i brushed a coat of Klear over them after the problems with Hoimann's and that did the trick, no ink coming off the edges.

Next have to make the 11 and bomb shape mask for the fuselage.

Hoimann - Airfix Me109 G6 Part 11

Sprayed on some weathering, some diluted sky grey and some exhaust stains.

I don't think its light enough and will probably disappear under the clear coat, so I might do it a touch lighter.