Wasting Time

After engaging in some projects involving kits that are old or of low quality like the Strelets figures and Monograms B-17 I have decided to only concentrate on high quality kits. With so many new nice kit coming every year there is no point in wasting precious spare time on sub-par products. So the Strelets figures is going in to the round archive and the B-17 is being stored for a rainy summer day.

Swedish Infantry of Charles XII

Strelets figures are rather crude but you get a lot of poses in the box though some poses are useless or odd. These guys really looks undisciplined and seems to be entangled in al sorts of fighting, while others just seems to be loitering. You wont be able to form nice strait ranks with these guys for the gaming table. The uniforms seems to be a real mishmash of older and newer issues and the weapons are just horrible, but when all the figures are grouped together they give a rather dynamic impression. One third of Swedish infantry men were issued pikes but no pikers are represented in the set but you get fourteen pikers in Strelets set 904 “From Narva to Poltava” The only way to get a (reduced) battalion with both pikers and musketeers would be to buy two set of 904. But I think that there are much better Great Northern War figures to spend time on, like these http://www.musketeer-miniatures.com/range.php?r=6

http://www.oldgloryuk.com/disp_items.php?c=356

I painted my soldiers with Vallejo Game Colour and gave them a wash of “Army Painter Strong Tone” stain varnish. I now have only the officers left to paint and I'm thinking of making some sort of simple diorama.

Games Workshop Space Marine

I bought a paint set incl. some Space Marines and I decided to paint one of them. My painting skill needs some polishing but the GW’s cheep plastic figures are excellent for just that purpose. The Citadel paint is excellent but I prefer the Vallejo Game Color because they are cheaper and spill prof.

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1/72 RAF WW 2 Kit list

I enjoyed putting together the USAF kit list so I made up some more lists. First is the RAF WW2 kit list. I've selected the most important aircraft with four digit production figures (some early types less) and tried to find the best kit available in terms of accuracy and detail. I must say that I was a little surprised to see how little interest the big manufacturer shows for English ww2 aircraft’s These lists are work in progress and I will update them from time to time.

AW 38 Whitley - Fly, New kit 2011

Avro Lancaster - Revell, Hasegawa

Avro Anson - Special Hobby, Multimedia kit

Boulton Paul Defiant - MPM

Bristol Blenheim - MPM

Bristol Beaufort - Special Hobby, Multimedia kit.

Bristol Beaufighter - Hasegawa

DH Mosquito -Tamiya

Fairey Swordfish - Airfix, New kit 2011

Fairey Battle MPM, Multimedia kit.

Fairey Albacore - MPM, Multimedia kit

Fairey Fulmar - Airfix

Fairey Barracuda - Special Hobby, Multimedia kit

Fairey Firefly - Special Hobby, Multimedia kit

Gloster Gladiator - Sword, Multimedia kit

Gloster Meteor - Dragon

HP Hampden - Valom, Multimedia kit

HP Halifax - Revel New kit 2011

Hawker Hart - AZ-Models

Hawker Hurricane - Hasegawa, AZ-Models

Hawker Typhoon - Academy

Hawker Tempest - Academy

Short Sunderland - Italeri New kit 2011

Short Stirling - Corgi Die-cast New 2011

Supermarine Walrus - Valom, Multimedia kit

Supermarine Spitfire - Tamiya, AZ-Models

Vickers Wellington - Trumpeter

Westland Lysander - Pavla, Multimedia kit

Revell / Monogram 1 /48 Visible B-17G Flying Fortress

My B-17 has finally arrived from China. Unfortunately it got stuck in custom and I had to pay sales tax. I also ordered some decals and photo etch but these items seems to have been lost In the mail. I'm not going to put more money in the project so it's going to be a out of the box build.

I have decided not to use the clear fuselage gimmick due to the loss of my ordered photo etch set but the supplied detail in the kit is good enough for a conventional build.

The surface detail is composed of fine raised lines and some rivet but this is totally wrong and the surface should be riveted all over so I guess they should have hired the “Mad Riveter” from Airfix for this one ;-)

New purchase in August

My girlfriend and I flew to London for a couple of days vacation and I took the opportunity to do some shopping at Model Zone.

Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Mk XII

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Airfix 1/72 Harrier GR7/GR9

Airfix 1/48 Seafire F.XVII

1/72 USAF / USN

I made a list of all important fighters and bombers of the USAF and USN with the best, to my knowledge, corresponding kits in 1/72 scale . My intention is to build a collection of the most important types. However for the big bombers I will choose the 1/144 scale. Some models, like the F-102, are only available as old out dated kits and for these I may be using ready made die-cast models. I will not be building multiple sub types unless dramatacly different in shape like for example the F-84 Thunderjet and the F-84 Thunderstreak.



* = Raised panel lines ** = Recessed panel lines *** = Die-Cast model **** = Resin kit

Early Jet Fighters
F-80 Shooting Star - Sword**
F-84 Thunderjet - Tamiya**, Academy**, HobbyBoss**
F-84F Thunderstreak - PJ-Production****
F-86 Sabre - Fujimi**, Hobby Boss**, Airfix**
F- 89 Scorpion - Revell**
F-94 Starfire - Emhar**

Century Series
F-100 Super Sabre - Trumpeter**
F-101 Voodoo - Revell**
F-102 Delta Dagger - Hasegawa* , Hobby Master***
F-104 Starfighter - Hasegawa**, Revell**
F-105 Thunderchief - Trumpeter**
F-106 Delta Dart - Hasegawa* , Hobby Master***

Late Jet Fighters
F-15 Eagle - Hasegawa**
F-16 Falcon - Hasegawa**
F-22 Raptor - Fujimi**, Revell**, Hobby Boss**

Attack aircraft
F-111 Aardvark - Hasegawa**
F-117 Nighthawk - Hasegawa**
A-10 Thunderbolt II Italeri / Revell**

Bombers 1/144 Scale!
B-36 Peacemaker - Hobbycraft**
B-45 Tornado - Anigrand Craftswork**** (Bonus model with the Convair XB-46 kit)
B-47 Stratojet - Academy**
B-52 Stratofortress - Revell**, Minicraft**
B-57 Canberra - Amodel**
B-58 Hustler - Academy**
B-66 Destroyer - No 1/144 kit. I settle for the A-3 Skywarrior.
B-1 Lancer - Panda/Dragon**
B-2 Spirit - Revell*

USN

Fighters
F2H Banshee - Academy**

F3H Demon - Emhar**
F3D Skyknight - Matchbox*
FJ-4 Fury - Emhar**
F4D Skyray - Tamiya**
F7U Cutlass - Fujimi**
F8U Crusader - Academy**
F9F Panther - Hobby boss**
F9F Cougar - Hasegawa*
F11F Tiger - Hasegawa*
F-4 Phantom II - Hasegawa**, Fujimi**
F-14 Tomcat - Fujimi**, Hasegawa**
F/A -18 Hornet - Academy**

Attack Aircraft
A-3 Skywarrior - Hasegawa**
A-4 Skyhawk - Fujimi**
A-5 Vigilante - Trumpeter**
A-6 Intruder - Hasegawa**, Italeri**
A-7 Corsair II - Hobby Boss**, Fijimi**

US Marine Corps Aviation

AV-8 Harrier II - Hasegawa**