Royal Air Force Museum London 2011

Some mixed picture from my visit.

Perhaps Revell shoud have employed Airfix´s mad riveter instead of the crazy trencher from Matchbox when they made their new B-17.

;-)

Cheers!

Special Hobby Seversky P-35 J-9 Swedish Defender

Special Hobby Seversky P-35 is good news for fans of both the U.S. Army Air Corps and the Swedish Air Force in 1/72 scale. While supporters of the quarter scale has been fortunate to have academy's nice kit, the 1/72 scale fans have not had the same luck and for years the only option has been MPM short run. 

This all new tool meet the current expectations for fine details and recessed lines. Besides three sprues of plastic parts there is also a few parts of resin and a small sheet of photo etch. I compared the parts against drawings of J-9 and they match perfectly. Finaly the beautiful decal sheet is really sweet icing on the cake and it gives you four choices of marking all in perfect colors and register. If the kit goes together as well as it looks I will give this kit top score! 

Thoughts on color

 I have come to the conclusion that it is difficult to nearly impossible to apply the "correct" color on a model. There are simply too many variables. Just look at the lack of contrast between the colors of my Ju 52, or some of my Swedish aircraft painted with Vallejo olive which became green after a year. Scale effects are also problematic, you can not just pour white in ready mixed paint for it easily becomes grayish. Although I still think it is very interesting to read and know about the real colors but I will choose a more "artistic" approach when I paint my models in the future, sticking with colorfast Gunze and Tamiya paint for airbrushing. For me it's a hobby, not an obsession. (not ruling out any future experiments just for fun though ;)

Eduard 1/144 Junkers ju 52

Eduards little Aunt Ju is as good as it just goes in 1/144 scale. Just look at the little machine gun and the corrugated fuselage! There's even a set of etched parts to buy but it is doubtful if anyone will see the parts without using a fiber-optic camera. The breakdown of parts makes it easy to get uneven joints on the fuselage and it is difficult to putty and sand the fuselage without damageing the fine corrugated surface, so be careful when you glue parts together (sadly I was not!). The clear parts are very nice and the adhesive painting masks that come with the kit makes it easy to get a very nice canopy framing.

I painted it with colors from Life Color Luftwaffe Set 1. Note the low contrast between the RLM 70 and the RLM 71, Life color match my color samples almost perfect and there is the problem, the Luftwaffe did not build their planes in 1 / 144th scale! For scale, one color should be brighter than the other. I save my Ju 52 as a reminder of the scale effect on colors. When dry I gave it a coat of GW Gloss in preparation before decaling. You get a nice decal sheet with markings for four different machines and the decals are thin and conform easily to the surface. I finished with a coat of GW purity seal. 

When I look at the pictures I see that it needs a little touching up here and there. There is also some scratches on cargo door that need to be addressed.

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire F Mk.22 A02033

Airfix new Spitfire F Mk 22 is a little gem. Everything fits perfectly and it is easily built. Cockpit has just enough detail for the scale and panel lines is a bit finer than on previous new releases from Airfix. The only thing to watch out for is not to damage the very brittle cockpit hood when removing it from the sprue. I managed to destroy one hood but lucky for me, the kit comes with two different hoods. I think this is the most beautiful of Spitfire marks and I am pleased to be able to add it to my collection of ww2 fighters. The colors used are Tamiya XF 81, 82 and 83. As usual, I forgot to paint the tail wheel! :-)