Jimmyjet

Had a look at some pictures from the Nuremburg Toy Fair 2014, the Airfix Typhoon 1/24th scale looks incredible! Not much detailing left to do there, straight out the box. So wish they would re-issue and update their 1/24th Spitfire MkI and 109E kits.

Looking at the Airfix new releases, the release of the 1/24th Typhoon is very good news. Airfix have re-tooled a number of their smaller scale kits which has been good for them in the sales department. I find it curious that they have never seemed keen to re-tool some of their 1/24th scale classics. How great would a re- tool of the Spit MkI and Bf 109E be, with detailed gun bays, wheel wells and re-worked cockpits? Not to mention some nice new decal sheets offering some interesting markings. One would think this would be a relatively cheap way to seriously boost their claim to be "Kings" of the 1/24th scale kit!?

That is brilliant! I really thought that first black and white was real! That weathering you did is, I think, one of the best jobs I've seen. Personally, I'm not a fan of the faded outlining of panels too much. To ma it is a bit of a "computer generated look", as in my experience with aircraft, outer extremities stay pretty clean, whilst engine areas can get very dirtied up. I think you've got weathering bang on here. The grease marks around the gun bays is superb. As I said, I would be hard pressed to tell some of those pics weren't real! There is just the one which shows the slightly thick windscreen cross section. Love the turning prop and pilot figure! I've seen pictures on the "Spitfire Site" of a chap in Australia, who photographed 1/72 scale Spits, against realistic airborne backgrounds and had the props turning with a hairdryer, with nicely done pilot figures. His photo's looked superb, even with a 1/72 model.

Looks good! Agree about the gear legs, the mounting lugs look as if the gear legs will attach 90 deg to the "ground", whereas on the Harvard they were angled 90 deg to the bottom surface of the wing centre section, which looked sightly forward swept, when standing on the ground being a tail dragger. The propellor hub had the piston and distinctive hocky puck counterweights for the pitch change mechanism, as for example all the SAAF aircraft didn't have spinnners. How has that been modelled? Couldn't pick them out on the sprues. I like the way they have done the cooling baffels on the engine, by moulding them in a disc, nice detail. Also have included the rocker box oil pipes between the cylinder barrels, also good detail.

And now for some more confusion...! The South African Air Force used Harvards as pilot traininers right up to 1995. It was quite somthing to walk out on the flight line and see 15 odd Harvards in pristeen condition ready to go! Here are some idiosynchrasies of SAAF Harvards. My memory of the canopy setup was as follows. SAAF aircraft were T6/SNJ's. The rear canopy was the small two top panel type, with a straight bottom edge to the canopy. The rear canopy was a complete unit and could be easily removed, for gunnery training, turning the rear seat arround to face to the rear. (See my member photo). The model looks to have this type of rear canopy. The three centre canopies had the extra centre bar on the canopy sides on what the SAAF called the "MkIII" Harvard. What they called the T6, had a one piece clear canopy side glass. The canopies were all the same size as they slid over/under eachother as such, in the open position. The front canopy slid over the fixed middle section, the rear canopy slid under the middle section. I remember this, as I loved flying with my canopy open! (Was there ever a better way to see the astounding wild flower blooms in the Cape West Coast hinterland?!). The other difference was the MkIII had a hydraulic system you had to "energise", by pushing down on a lever near the seat, to retract gear etc. The SAAF T6's had a system that was constantly pressurised. I do recall lots of different fairings etc. When I started out on pilots course in 1983, I remember the Harvards still having 303 guns in the wings, we flew with canvas covers over the barrels. We still also had the two pylons attached to the lower wing surface. A lot of the aircraft also had the bulged nose top panel, for the nose mounted 303 gun, with a short gun trough. On the wingundersides some did and some didn't have the cartridge case deflector blisters. My understanding was the Brits used the Harvard name, whilst the Americans used the T6 or SNJ name, I didn't know it applied to variuos models? Again Canadian aircraft seemed to be the ones who used the long exhaust setup for winter heating. Never saw one of those in the SAAF. Another interesting quirk was again some Canadian and Brit aircraft used the RAF style round grip, like the Spit and Hurricane, although the Harvard having toe brakes, this was not neccesary. All the SAAF ones had the American style (Mustang) pistol grip control stick. As far as I know the rudder pedals were exactly like the Mustang's, with the NAA (North American Aviation) eagle emblem cast onto them. I remember seeing lots of strange little cockpit fittings like elbow rests etc, which again some aircraft had and some didn't. The thing is, does a "standard" Harvard/T6 exist?! Build it and be damned with rivet counting!!

Saw this old thread but had to comment, what a build! I've loved looking at interview clips of Pete Brothers, awesome guy. The Hurricane looks fantastic and I LOVE the weathering, does not have all that panel shading of the artistic "computer generated" look...very nice!

RJS, the dihedral, maybe heat very gently with hair dryer and try just bend them gently? Looks like you don't need much. Was looking at it again, really like the way you did the patchy grass, looks very good!

Doesn't get much better than that Matt. Amazing job. One point on weathering. In the desert (and anywhere for that matter, but to a much lesser extent) , the rear of the prop blades took a pounding. Where the airflow, due to the prop blade positive pitch/angle of attack, caused much more abraiding/sand blasting on the "back" side of the prop blade, compared to the "front" side. Please don't look on this as any form of criticism, to me it's just a point of interesting discussion, caused by your excellent 109.

Beautifully done and I agree, beautifully photographed. WNW have really opened up the WW 1 aircraft modelling scene - Great!

After reading the conversation on the cockpit crow bar/canopy breaker, I would like to check something on this brilliant diorama job. It is so nicely done. So one thing that drew my eye a bit, is what appears in the photo, to be positive dihedral on the tailplane? Normally the tailplane has none.

Awesome work! Curious about the cockpit colour, unpainted? was it the standard grey? I'm always amused by the complexity of the setup He III aircraft had, for raising the pilot seat and controls, so he could fly with his head basically out the canopy, going back to 1918 style! Fascinating. Great kit from Revell.

Very nice and an interesting subject. Really like the subtle weathering. In my experience, outer extremities of the aircraft tend to stay pretty clean, whilst engine areas can/do dirty up a bit, so I like this weathering. Seen the sister, which interestingly must have lost it's tyres due to aging/perishing? So they have been replaced with rather well made wooden copies! I have seen both the 109 and Fw190 at said museum. German sheet metal work was exquisite, virtually the whole aircraft is flush rivited. How they managed to keep up that build quality whilst having their butts bombed to smithereens is.... scary!

Brilliant, not bad considering not built at a permanent location. Some delicate masking around the one with the "pink" radome, unusual colour? Always remind me of what I think was the best of the Stephen Coonts books, Flight of the Intruder.

Yes Jessie, as I said, the one Airfix 1/72 RAF figures pilot, is holding a chute, pack and all, draped over one shoulder. This is correct with this type of chute. But those are great figures you have there. I think one of the Trumpeter LSP kits had some very good figures supplied with it?

Ha Ha Lain, yes I remember you could sight the silk if you lifted a corner of the khaki pack. They told us in pre flights, check the small metal rods on the rip chord cable end were not bent, as if they were, you will not be able to pull it. These sat under that small flap in the centre of the pack with the "lift the dots" fasteners. This was what you sat on, these little rods ended up with your full weight on them against the metal seat...I always worried a bit about that! But quite right, if you could stand in it, the harness was too loose. On the Harvards we would put them on the tailplane, drape the shoulder straps over your shoulders, plug them into the release box and then walk forward dragging the pack off the tail. This would thump onto the back of your legs then you would do up the rest of the straps, into that big round black release"box". The groin straps had a certain way of looping over and under around the central loop, can't recall how that worked any more! The Airfix 1/72 RAF figures have one pilot figure correctly posed with the whole chute straps and back pack, draped over his shoulder.

Yes holding a hot nail etc close to the sprue can tighten it, but you are walking a narrow path here! A thin piece, can easily burn through. It takes some practice, but if you get it pretty soft, almost melted, and pull the sprue apart at a constant but fas-tish pace, you can get a very thin, uniform piece. It cools very fast and I instantly drop one end and let it hang. It will be dead straight then. Also yes, different plastics will be easier/harder to work with. I save all my black sprues, no need to paint the stretched sprue then.

The parachute pack is interesting. Different from the American clip on chutes. As far as I know, it was only bombers which had a seperate pack, clipped normally onto the chest, the fighter or pilots chute you sat on, was permanently mounted to the harness, so would hang down on your bum. It was impossible to walk upright wearing it, virtually impossible to walk. These exact same parachutes were still used years after the war, by the South African Air Force, when the Harvards (SNJ/T6G) aircraft were still used for flying training. The Harvards all had the original metal bucket seats, as you sat ontop of the chutes. (Hence why I know you can hardly walk wearing them!) so not too sure about the one figure just wearing the harness?

I realy enjoy working with stretched sprue, one big bonus, it's for free! This may be old news to many, but anyway, here goes. (Also doing this post to see if my Photobucker pics will work!....they did!) By varying rates of heating over a candle and stretch out rates, with a bit of practice all sorts of thicknesses can be made. By allowing it to hang by one end to cool, this will normally result in a dead straight piece of sprue. If you have a large span to cross, glue one end with superglue, then draping over the othe end, hold it taught and super glue it, hold tension till dry. Easy way to do aerial wires. Insulators can be done again with super glue blobs painted white. You can do complex riging jobs on smaller scales. You need deviders to measure the span between struts, cut the measurede length of straight sprue then pop into place securing with blobs of white wood glue. The easy wat to apply glue is dip the ends of sprue into a little pool of glue. White wood glue is great, because it dries clear and has the added bonus of shrinking slightly when it dries, to add a little tension to the sprue. Attached are pics of my Roden 1/48th Bristol Fighter all done with stretched sprue. Will work well for short span areas/aerial wires on a 1/32 scale. As I said, complex rigging on 1/72 can be done and contrary to popular belief, with this method, it's fun!