So, it was the wheels next…
The saga of the wheels became a bit more involved than I expected. The ones in the kit are simple two piece affairs that depict the wheels in their covered form with some faux spokes and valve showing through a cut-out in the fabric
Continue reading Sopwith Camel F1 – Hasegawa 1:8 (Part 3): Wheels
In the post about the Clerget engine I mentioned completing the propeller and said I’d cover it in a later post, so here we are. I’ve included the wing struts too as they were done in parallel.
The prop and wing struts are parts of the model that catch your eye so I wanted to make sure that they had visual impact. To achieve it I opted for a high gloss, deep mahogany coloured finish. In fact glossier than the real thing probably.
Continue reading Sopwith Camel F1 – Hasegawa 1:8 (Part 2): Prop, Interplane and Cabane Struts
The first part of Hasegawa’s Sopwith Camel kit is the Clerget 9B engine. The kit I’d bought was second hand and the previous owner had already assembled most of the engine, and not to a standard I was happy with. However, the lady selling the model said that there was also a separate unstarted Clerget engine model available that she would include for free. Top stuff! Continue reading Sopwith Camel F1 – Hasegawa 1:8 (Part 1), Clerget 9B Rotary Radial Engine
Many years ago, 20+ in fact, I went into a model shop in Hull, England and hanging from the ceiling above the counter was a truly magnificent model of an S.E.5a WWI bi-plane. The model was huge, as far as I was concerned, and finished without fabric covering so you could see all of the rigging, spars, ribs etc. I was utterly impressed. Continue reading Sopwith Camel F1 – Hasegawa 1:8
Having made a number of models for other people, the Other-Half (CJ) asked if she could have one to display on her desk at work (which was nice). I was in the middle of building Kinetic’s 1:32 scale Hawk 100 series model in the colours of BAe’s Demonstrator ZJ100 and, apart from the size of it, the subject was perfect.
We’re on the home straight now and this is the concluding part of this little (?) build thread (“Praise be! There is a God” from the back row).
Now at this stage it should have been a simple case of getting on with the painting, but there was a small set back… Continue reading Tamiya McDonnell-Douglas F-4D Phantom II (Part 2)
Preamble Gubbins
This post is aimed at people who have little knowledge of model making but I hope will also be of interest to more experienced modellers. For the latter, please bear with me through the bits where I’m talking about the basics and teaching you to suck eggs.
The Main Bit
I’d fancied building an F-4 for a while as it is probably my favourite aircraft. I already have a model of the RAF’s FGR.2 (F-4M in McD speak) in the loft so I thought I’d build a US variant this time. As a friend flew them operationally in Vietnam, and Tamiya do some nice large F-4D and E kits, I thought I’d build an airframe he actually flew. Continue reading Tamiya McDonnell-Douglas F-4D Phantom II (Part 1)
This figure was made to accompany the 1:32 Tamiya F-4D Phantom II model that I made and is the subject of a separate post on here.
The figure came from Verlinden in the US and isn’t actually the one I ordered. The one I was expecting looked like this one with the pilot demonstrating some aerial manoeuvre in the time-honoured fashion.
Instead the chap I received was posed writing something down and I’ve never actually seen him for sale anywhere.
I wasn’t upset by the substitution though. Continue reading Verlinden Vietnam Era USAF Pilot
MBIQ Models 