ericg

Its that time again where I reflect on the last year of modelling effort. 
 
I had a big year this year with 8 completions in 1:32 scale. I was lucky enough to attend 4 shows in 2016, being Wellington, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. I also was able to present 3 of my models to the pilots who flew the actual aircraft that I depicted, which was a first for me. Thanks to all who followed my builds and I look forward to bringing some new and different stuff to you next year.
 
The Models:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The Men:
 

 

 

 
The Silverware:
 

Great work mate.
 
If I can offer some advice regarding the stance of your completed model. Have you got any good reference pics from the period that you are depicting your model? Looking at my collection of models now I can see quite a few of the ones that I changed the geometry of the kit undercarriage to suit particular photos that I found. Most of the period photos of the Tigercat that I have been able to locate show that they are very tail heavy and sit nose high. A big clue is also the torsion/scissor links (which are not present on the Hph built example)which show that they are near or on max extension.
I reckon if you can make it so that the oleos and scissor links can be easily removed and refitted, once the model is almost complete and before painting, you can have a look at the photos and get yourself down to the same eye level on your model and really have a play at getting a suitable `sit' of the model which will make a big difference in the long run. A perfect example in my collection is my Trumpeter Skyhawk which if it was left in the flat attitude that the kit demanded would have looked wrong if I hadn't shortened the main undercarriage and jacked up the front nose gear leg. I did this according to many reference photos and it looks as it did in those.
 
Eric.

If I can weigh in about the metal undercarriage. It concerns me that people insist that a kit needs to have cast metal gear due to the kit gear appearing to be too thin etc. I have built more than 40 1/32 scale models over the last 7 years, many of them traveling thousands of kilometres to different shows and weighing lots more than the original kit due to conversions, resin additions and the like. None of them would have befinitted from haveing cast brass gear and I certainly haven't seen any issues with them not being able to take the weight. Yes some of them have metal gear in the first place and some of them I have beefed up a little by inserting brass pins etc to strengthen them but certainly not to the point of requiring aftermarket legs. Of course they are nice to have but I just don't think they are that necessary. The forces that people are worried about that might cause the gear to break on the model are likely to mess the whole model up anyway by tearing out the metal gear (including the mounting points and associated actuators,wheel bays and the like.

Could the pin through the top of the nose wheel have been an unavoidable part of the manufacturing process, ie: the only way they could have got a pin through the nose gear leg was to do it that way?
 
Looks like there is almost no weight on the nose gear anyway, so could it be razor sawed out?
 
Eric

Well said Rog.
 
Like you, I will be sitting on my hands when it comes to the A-20. There is no way I will be willing to part with what I can only guess will be a large amount of coin for it until I have seen someone actually build the kit and give an in depth view into its construction such as this build. Bear in mind that a review of the kit is usually undertaken by someone who is not actually going to build it, rather just an `in box' look at whats in the kit with a few rudimentary parts being taped together.
 
I think that HpH really need to assess who is doing their test builds of the kits, that is, if they are being test built and understand that to charge such a high end price for their kits that they really need to provide a better approach to how the kits are able to be put together and that we as builders of the kits expect that some of the quality issues (such as the oversized nose weights, undersized cannon barrels , wing details on this build) simply should not exist. Once again, a decent and honest test build of the kit before it is released onto the market would pick these issues up. If a part needs to be re-tooled then so be it.
 
Now, most of us understand that these are hand made limited run kits and can expect to model our way out of simple issues but at the end of the day, these aren't cheap kits and I feel that there are a great many HpH kits that have been consigned to the shelf of doom or will remain in the box due to at least some of the factors that I have described. 
 
Eric. 

Great work Out2gtcha.
 
I can sympathise with you regarding the problems with the kit. I purchased their 1/48 Concorde when it first came out and started it straight away. I quickly ran into issues with the fit of parts and it was simple stuff that should have been easily picked up by whoever test built the model, presuming it had been test built in the first place. The mouldings were misaligned on the fuselage and required a large amount of filler and the shape of the nose was just wrong. It now resides on the shelf of doom with only a slim hope of ever being built and i feel like I wasted my money on an extremely expensive kit. It's almost as if they design and manufacture these kits and get them onto the market as quickly as possible without doing the other stuff that manufactures do to ensure that their kits are more builder friendly.

Part of the build has been connecting with the pilot of the aircraft. I tracked down John via Facebook and we have had quite a bit of correspondence about his time flying the A-4, in particular 882. I wanted to get his name on the side as per the original, so I set about making it happen. I tried using my inkjet printer and some spare clear decal sheet, only to see failure.....
 
Here it is, and I certainly wasn't happy with it.
 

 
I am lucky enough to have a good mate with an ALPS printer, so I asked him nicely and a couple of days later I received a very nicely printed sheet of pilots names, thanks Dave! Much better.
 

 
I am pushing on with this build to hopefully see it finished by the end of the year.

I spent some time today fitting alot of the parts that have been hanging around this kit such as the leading edge slats and flaps, nose gear and horizontal stabilizers. I also test fitted the loadout. It should be noted that I have a tail sitter at this point in the build, as I didn't add any nose weight. By tail sitter, I mean that if it is pushed down at the tail it wont return to its nose gear by itself. I do however have a devious plan that will sort out the problem whilst only adding the minimum required amount of weight to get it to return to its nose if tipped, therefore keeping the total weight of the model down.  I am pretty pleased with how this kit has turned out so far and cant wait to get it into the display cabinet.
 

 

Some more work.
 
I gave the model a coat of Tamiya clear Acrylic in preparation for decaling which I use due to its non aggressive and easy to use nature. I have used kit stencil data which is reasonably accurate for an Aussie A-4, and some of the Hawkeye decals. The Hawkeye stuff has been laser printed on clear deal film, so there is a need to underlay most of the decals with carefully cut white decal paper. Combine this with the fact that the decals are extremely thin and will warp and fold in upon themselves at the slightest touch and you have a pretty big challenge on your hands to get them looking good. I feel that some parts of the Hawkeye decals are approx 5% too big, which is a disappointment but unfortunately, they are the only ones which will produce the scheme that I am after that fill in the parts which I was unable to produce as masks. I am still to produce the pilots names decal that will sit on the port side under the windshield as I have finally found a picture which confirms that there were names painted there. I am just waiting for John to confirm he spelling of the name under his and then will proceed from there.
 
Here is an example.
 
First cut out a white decal triangle.
 

 
Lay down a red triangle. I felt that the red was too light and wasn't matching the reds that I had already painted on the airframe.
 

 
Luckily I had 2 sets of Hawkeye decals, so I was able to apply another red triangle for the desired effect.
 

 
Here are some brass micro tube drains that I have installed into the rear fuselage
 

 
I cut a small mask from paper and sprayed the cordite residue from the cannon blast deflectors on each side of the fuselage.
 

 
I have been experimenting with Mig enamel washes to start highlighting panels etc. 
 

 
Some overall views of the model. I spend quite a bit of time looking at the model in this way to get the feel of how the model will present when it is finished. So far I am pretty happy with it.
 

 

Time to add some extra elements. 
 
I wanted to add some tire marks. Using some Tamiya tape, I marked out various lines on the Tarmac. I then sprayed each edge with some diluted Gunze Smoke.
 
\
 

 
I flicked some diluted Black oil paint over the base to put some random oil spots over it. (being careful not to overdo it.) I also painted on a leak using the excellent AK Interactive Aircraft engine oil. 
 

 
I also added a small weed (I doubt that it would have been there but I guess it adds some interest) You can also see that I have sprayed each gap in the concrete with a very thin line of Tamiya Nato Black.
 

 
The finished product. 
 

 
Mounted on a wooded base that I got from a trophy shop. The gap on the right will be used for information about the model.
 

 
The base not only gives the model a realistic setting but also it brings out the light blue nature of the lighter cam colour.
 

Moving on, and I am in the final stages of the build. Here is the finished ejection seat.
 

 

 
I also added a small improvement to my workbench. After spending some time at the bench the other day i felt a bit overcome by fumes and decided to do something about it. You will notice the small round object in the corner of the bench. this is one of these:
 
http://ventair.com.au/ventairproduct/vilf150
 
I have attached the ducting (you get 6 meters of it) to the vent and then positioned it under and behind my bench to the inline fan which then has some more ducting that exits out my window. Using it over the last couple of days has resulted in a drastic improvement to the air quality at my bench and I can only imagine the health benfits looking forward.

Here is Rynier after the famous mission.
 

Two of Italeris fast jets. Despite the bad things said about them, they turn out OK!
 

 
Decades of difference in the age of these two kits. Revell's Mirage IIIE vs Italeri's Mirage IIIC
 

 
In its new home.
 

I have now photographed the finished model and have placed it in the ready for inspection area. Thanks to everyone who provided input along the way and followed my build. Cant wait to get stuck into Italeri's next offering!
 
http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=60870
 

Well guys, this is it! I have reached the point where there is simply nothing more to do and am calling this one finished.
 
Here are some quick `30 seconds after it was finished shots' of the model on my workbench. I will be taking better photos of this one as soon as I can, so stay tuned. Whilst the kit has its fair share of problems and has been extensively criticized, I can confidently say that it is my best one so far.
 

 

 

 
Until next time, totsiens!
 

So a rather big box arrived today from Luckymodel. The son always assists me with unpacking duties and then it was straight to the workshop to start on the Mirage. Having constructed the Revell Mirage a little while ago, naturally I was keen to see how much has changed in the way kits are manufactured in 40 or so years.
 

 
I will be building this model alongside my A-4 Skyhawk and intend on building it straight from the box. Like my Starfighter from Italeri, I did not add anything to that model and despite the rather dire reviews that it received, it turned out OK. I reckon I can do the same with this model. I have chosen the SAAF version, as my young fella is half South African (a SOZZIE) and his mother nags me to build something from her country of origin.
 
I have been quite impressed with how detailed the kit is during the build so far and have managed to get some work done on it today.
 
First up is the gear bays. Apart from a few small hydraulic lines, there is not much more that would be required in this area.
 

 
The nose gear bay which I have mostly glued together as I intend on painting it before fixing the other side. Pretty happy with the detail here.
 

 
An issue that I have identified so far is that there is no instrument detail, nor a decal to depict it. I will be looking to Airscale to fill the void here. I have painted the cockpit parts Tamiya Nato black. With careful detail painting, they will come up very nice.
 

 

 

 

 
Here is the surface texture that everybody has been talking about. It is a little grainy, but it is certainly nothing that wont disappear under a coat of primer follwed by a going over with some fine grit sandpaper. I have been particularly impressed by the finely engraved lines and the nicely depicted vents and grilles.
 

The cowling wasnt actually that hard to get to fit with the engine in, I just ground down parts of the engine to make it lower so that the cowl would go over the top. Lots of dry fitting to ensure there was no stress on the plastic and then glued. I just couldnt live with the see through effect of the various cooling intakes etc with the engine out.3

I am at the younger end of the scale when it comes to modellers.
 
Here's me about to go to work for the first time after we had our latest boy.
 

 
And at rest with both of my 1:1 scale creations
 

Some detail photos:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much for all of the kind comments.
 
I was able to arrange a video call with Ron to show him his jet. We spent over an hour talking, and even though we were on opposite sides of the world (Texas/Queensland) it felt like we were in the same room. By far, my favourite part of the build. I got my son to take a pic of the event.
 

Some more work.
 
But first, a couple more pics of Homer. Homer led the first airstrike during Operation Falconer 2003. Here he is before departing on that day.
 

 
And here he is upon return from the same mission.
 

 
Its stuff like the above that really make me strive to do the best that I can on each of my subject pilot builds. Early on in the build, I realised that there was a fair bit of stuff that was on Homers Hornet during his 2016 mission that I would have to scratch build, such as the BOL dispensers as shown earlier. Another feature was the ELTA 8222 ECM pod that was standard issue for our Hornets, mounted to a unique adapter on station 6. I was ready to make these in plastic card but this was during the aquisition of my 3D printer, so one thing led to another and I ended up designing each piece. I did investigate the Wolfpack 8222 pod but was not happy with it.
 

 
And here are the parts. They are almost ready to go. I am still playing with various angles of printing to get rid of some of the small visible lines and a panel line or two need to be tweaked to give them a bit more depth. 
 

 
Test fit to the model. Its a shame that they wont be very visible!
 

 
 
 

Maybe publicly complaining about it might save someone a huge amount of hassle as well as money, as far as I am concerned, the amount of effort to fix the part has greatly outweighed the convenience of it, after all, it was supposed to be a ‘correction’. Are we only allowed to say things about things if it is positive? There must be quite a few copies of this part out there, I would be very surprised if mine was the only one like it. 

Nice job!
 

I agree there. The whole point of the resin part is to correct the nose and they slapped a large casting block on it that is fairly difficult to remove. Add to that, the mould must be starting to wear out, as mine had a mismatch where the casting block meets the nose which has been a pain to fix as well as being significantly out of round. My spinner was also out of round. What should have been a great product has left me very disappointed.

Some more work.
 
But first, a couple more pics of Homer. Homer led the first airstrike during Operation Falconer 2003. Here he is before departing on that day.
 

 
And here he is upon return from the same mission.
 

 
Its stuff like the above that really make me strive to do the best that I can on each of my subject pilot builds. Early on in the build, I realised that there was a fair bit of stuff that was on Homers Hornet during his 2016 mission that I would have to scratch build, such as the BOL dispensers as shown earlier. Another feature was the ELTA 8222 ECM pod that was standard issue for our Hornets, mounted to a unique adapter on station 6. I was ready to make these in plastic card but this was during the aquisition of my 3D printer, so one thing led to another and I ended up designing each piece. I did investigate the Wolfpack 8222 pod but was not happy with it.
 

 
And here are the parts. They are almost ready to go. I am still playing with various angles of printing to get rid of some of the small visible lines and a panel line or two need to be tweaked to give them a bit more depth. 
 

 
Test fit to the model. Its a shame that they wont be very visible!
 

 
 
 

Some more work.
 
But first, a couple more pics of Homer. Homer led the first airstrike during Operation Falconer 2003. Here he is before departing on that day.
 

 
And here he is upon return from the same mission.
 

 
Its stuff like the above that really make me strive to do the best that I can on each of my subject pilot builds. Early on in the build, I realised that there was a fair bit of stuff that was on Homers Hornet during his 2016 mission that I would have to scratch build, such as the BOL dispensers as shown earlier. Another feature was the ELTA 8222 ECM pod that was standard issue for our Hornets, mounted to a unique adapter on station 6. I was ready to make these in plastic card but this was during the aquisition of my 3D printer, so one thing led to another and I ended up designing each piece. I did investigate the Wolfpack 8222 pod but was not happy with it.
 

 
And here are the parts. They are almost ready to go. I am still playing with various angles of printing to get rid of some of the small visible lines and a panel line or two need to be tweaked to give them a bit more depth. 
 

 
Test fit to the model. Its a shame that they wont be very visible!
 

 
 
 

Some more work.
 
But first, a couple more pics of Homer. Homer led the first airstrike during Operation Falconer 2003. Here he is before departing on that day.
 

 
And here he is upon return from the same mission.
 

 
Its stuff like the above that really make me strive to do the best that I can on each of my subject pilot builds. Early on in the build, I realised that there was a fair bit of stuff that was on Homers Hornet during his 2016 mission that I would have to scratch build, such as the BOL dispensers as shown earlier. Another feature was the ELTA 8222 ECM pod that was standard issue for our Hornets, mounted to a unique adapter on station 6. I was ready to make these in plastic card but this was during the aquisition of my 3D printer, so one thing led to another and I ended up designing each piece. I did investigate the Wolfpack 8222 pod but was not happy with it.
 

 
And here are the parts. They are almost ready to go. I am still playing with various angles of printing to get rid of some of the small visible lines and a panel line or two need to be tweaked to give them a bit more depth. 
 

 
Test fit to the model. Its a shame that they wont be very visible!