Stuart's Bench of Blunders

[Stuart]

Woohoo - time for an update.

Progress has been made on the F-5A (or C), the minecraft cockpit has been painted up and the fuselage halves are now together. Obviously the cockpit isn't at all to scale, or accurate, but it looks better then the nothing that was there before. Anyway, the clear part is so thick you won't see it regardless - Turkish Modelers must be made of sterner stuff!





I've also managed to get started again on the Airfix Starter set Hawk I was building. I've rubbed down the issues with the upperside paint and given it another light coat. I just need to do the trailing edges of the wings and I can start sorting out the underneath.



And just because you can never have too many, I've started another Spitfire - I'm sure this is Andy's bad influence.

I'm building one of these...



In this rather natty SAAF PRU Blue over Grey scheme...



So far I've built up the ridiculously complicated cockpit (nothing of which will be seen once the canopy is on) and started some basic painting.



Cheers All!

[Andy Dighton]

And just because you can never have too many, I've started another Spitfire - I'm sure this is Andy's bad influence.

I'm building one of these...



In this rather natty SAAF PRU Blue over Grey scheme...



So far I've built up the ridiculously complicated cockpit (nothing of which will be seen once the canopy is on) and started some basic painting.



Cheers All!

I refuse to take responsibility for the Spitfire . Actually it's a decent kit and you've picked a good scheme for it.
The Hawk & F-5 are coming along nicely.

[Stuart]

I refuse to take responsibility for the Spitfire . Actually it's a decent kit and you've picked a good scheme for it.
The Hawk & F-5 are coming along nicely.

lol! Glad to hear it's a decent kit though, I was a bit worried about all the interior gubbing not fitting!

Thanks! The Hawk isn't a bad little kit, yes it's missing some details but at least it goes together well. The same can't be said for the F-5!

[Stuart]

Hi All, I hope you had a decent Easter.

Work on the little Airfix Starter set Hawk progressed over the weekend. In order to turn it into a Sidewinder armed T.1A, I had to fit the ADEN cannon and Sidewinders kindly supplied by Andy. However I realised whilst priming the parts that although I'd got the missiles and the rails, I had no pylons. So using the mk.I eyeball I scratch-built a couple using a decent picture in one of my (many) RAF reference books as a guide.



I've then primed them and painted up the U/C. I've also had to wet & dry a few areas where my initial airbrush priming spat bubbles everywhere and touch up the primer. The red plastic this is moulded in is a bit of a pain.



The only thing I have left to do now to bring this kit up to standard is scratch-build a nose undercarriage bay door, as the kit doesn't include one. So the final list of added components to this kit are:

Cockpit IPs and control columns.
Under fuselage Strakes
Nose Light
Pitot tube
Drilled APU exhaust
Nose bay gear door

It's not a bad kit this starter set, but it is lacking in some pretty important details, none of which would have cost Airfix anything in tooling I would imagine, they certainly wouldn't have made the kit harder to build. but it does kind of fly in the face of their claims that these kits are not just for starters, but can be built by an 'experienced' modeller as a 'palette cleanser' and still look as good as a regular kit on the shelf. Really? I can forgive maybe the strakes and even the nose door, but no Hawk kit is going to look right without the distinctive nose light and pitot.

Anyway, I'm getting nearer my long term goal of having a two-tone grey 'Air-Defence' Hawk T.1A on the shelf, to go with my two-tone tactical camo one.



Cheers!

[Crashpilot]

My, busy workbench there, Stuart
I´m just about finishing my 1st model in 2 years
But, at least there are no bad/unhappy reasons for me for neglecting the wb for so long

[Stuart]

My, busy workbench there, Stuart
I´m just about finishing my 1st model in 2 years
But, at least there are no bad/unhappy reasons for me for neglecting the wb for so long

lol! I'm having trouble settling on anything of late.

Looking forward to seeing it Markus.

[Lone Modeller]

I am glad that you are not building another shark mouth variant!

When I think about the original Spitfire in 1/72 as released by Airfix, and then read your comment about the cockpit interior, I do laugh! Try one of the old mouldings and see how you feel then!!!!

The Hawk and F5 look very promising.

[Stuart]

The Hawk and F5 look very promising.

Thanks LM!

I am glad that you are not building another shark mouth variant!

LOL! Alas that is on the list - I love the boxart US version with the Shark mouth.

When I think about the original Spitfire in 1/72 as released by Airfix, and then read your comment about the cockpit interior, I do laugh! Try one of the old mouldings and see how you feel then!!!!

UM.... Had you forgotten...? PM models Spitfire mk.V Floatplane - the Spitfire was the old 50s/60s FROG kit IT had NO interior! I had to scratch-build a rear bulkhead so I could fit a seat for the pilot and an IP.



Tbh I don't mind old kits with a lack of interior. I still rate the old Airfix mk.IX with the simple pilot on a stick cockpit and the old tool Hurricane mk.I is one of my favourite kits. I don't Mind all this additional detail, but I do think it's total overkill on a 1/72 Fighter.

Cheers LM!

[skypirate]

Very cool projects, Stuart!
I like that Spitfire scheme!
And the Hawk has turned out beautifully!

Well done!

David

[B4en]

The Hawk does look fine in the two tone camo Stuart. Very cool.

[Stuart]

Thanks Gents - much appreciated!

[ShaunW]

The Hawk looks great in that scheme, Stuart. The last Hawk I built was the original tooling in a 1990's era Red Arrows boxing, which I finished in the red/white/grey trainer scheme using AM decals. Although the old tool kit needed a bit of work to make it more accurate it sounds like there has been some cost cutting by Airfix with this starter set version. I seem to recall that a new tool kit was brought out to relatively little fanfare a few years ago, which is what I would probably use to build another Hawk in 1/72nd and would look to avoid this starter set version unless they are one and the same!

[Stuart]

The Hawk looks great in that scheme, Stuart. The last Hawk I built was the original tooling in a 1990's era Red Arrows boxing, which I finished in the red/white/grey trainer scheme using AM decals. Although the old tool kit needed a bit of work to make it more accurate it sounds like there has been some cost cutting by Airfix with this starter set version. I seem to recall that a new tool kit was brought out to relatively little fanfare a few years ago, which is what I would probably use to build another Hawk in 1/72nd and would look to avoid this starter set version unless they are one and the same!

Hi Shaun,

Thanks, I do like the grey scheme on the Hawk although you don't see it built too often. I think I remember you build IIRC. This starter set isn't the same as the regular kit. That was tooled in 2008 (God has it been that long) whilst the starter set was released in 2020. I've built the 2008 tooling a couple of times (and have two more in the stash) and it's a much better and more detailed kit.

[Stuart]

Some progress on my other builds (the Hawk is having it's paint touched up).

The F-5A/C fuselage is together and I've started sorting out the seams. I thought it was going to be a filler monster when I started but I've been following James's 'Fettle not fill' motto and so far it seems to be working. The worst bit is under the cockpit. There are also quite a few sink marks to fill, especially on the one piece wings.



I've also tested fitted the canopy and the wings and thankfully, both seem to be an acceptable fit. I've not however looked at the intakes yet



I'm also making slow progress on the new tool Spitfire mk.Vc. I've been maligning it a bit it would appear, as the 'cockpit pod' went together really easily, as has the fuselage halves. Much better in fact than the multi-part interior their previous Spitfire had - I have to say I'm impressed. I still think the level of detail is overkill, but that's another issue.



Cheers!

[ShaunW]

The F-5 is progressing very nicely, Stuart. I lack James' finesse and pretty much always reach for the filler! I'm glad the Spit is going together better than expected. I've found Airfix NT kits to be a bit of a mixed bag with their engineering but one of the best I've encountered so far was the 1/48th P-40, which went together like a dream when I really expected problems getting the fuselage together.