The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Tentatively re-entering the hobby after some years away, here's the station I've set up. Modestly equipped, and it has to double for a home office, but the view of the woods is nice.



What's on the bench at the moment. There's a Hobbycraft Beech C-45 for which I've built a full passenger cabin (the door on the other side is cut out so a bit of it can be seen) and built up the nose to a more accurate shape. This will go into 1950s RCAF markings.



A P-47B, kitbashed from Lindberg and Hasegawa kits and started 6 years ago, has been resumed and is nearing completion.



There's a box of damaged models still to be fixed from my move to this house last year. This is only some of them.



A Heller Spitfire XVI, another long dormant project, waits in the queue.



As does a Fujimi Mk.XIV.



It's good to many of you still building and posting from when I last frequented the forum.

August

That's a really nice bright setup, and the PC to go with it. And some interesting looking projects on the finishing list too.

You've also reminded me about how I need to finish an Airfix Spitfire mk.22 sometime soon.

Nice selection of models there, August. And only the best of websites on the computer, I see...!

We have the same "modest equipment", but your view it's fantastic, and mich better than mine!

That's a nice set up you have August

That's a great looking office/workbench set up you have there August, with an enviable view. Some good looking projects on the go too.

Thanks guys. Most of the time I model at night, so what is outside has a better view of me than I have of it.

A red-tailed hawk has been glaring at me from about 100 feet away lately. He looks cranky, probably because it's the end of March and it's still snowing.

Speaking of hawks, here is the latest project on the bench.



I was thinking that it is about time I taught myself how to rig biplanes. There are probably 50 kits I could have pulled out of my stash that would have been nice easy builds so I could get to the rigging quickly but noooo, I had to do something interesting. This is a vac kit to convert the Monogram 1/72 P-6E into a P-1, or possibly an F6C-1/2. I don't recall who made it. I do recall that it came together with a kit to convert the Monogram F4B-4 into an early P-12/F4B, and I started that, but it is somewhere else in the stash. Anyway I decided to have a go at this.

The vac sheet consists of a fuselage plus some useless, half-hearted attempts at wheels, prop and struts, all of which I'll have to replace. It uses the Monogram wings and tail feathers. This weekend I cut out the fuselage halves and cleaned them up. They had no exhausts at all, so I had to cut the exhausts out of the Monogram kit, make holes in the vac fuselages, and cement them in. This was fiddly stuff. I built up the fuselage tubing from sprue referencing the old Wylam drawings.

Next few nights I'll try to complete the cockpit and get the fuselage together so I can focus on the purpose of the project.

August

The Hawk continues to come along and is almost ready to have the fuselage closed up. Then it'll be like a normal model, except for having to need to scratch the landing gear.



Seats are scratched from card, panel has accurate hanging rudder pedals. I was surprised that silver seems to be the standard interior color on these.

Here's a simple but special project I've been working on, changing the markings of a Hobby Boss AVG P-40B to that of John Newkirk's bird.

John Newkirk was born in New York and went to high school in Scarsale, where I live now. He enlisted in the Navy in the 1930s and flew F2As off the Yorktown (another future project) before resigning his commission to join the AVG in China. Newkirk was the first commander of the second of the AVG's three squadrons and is credited with naming the squadron the Panda Bears. He was prominently featured in an early Life magazine article about the group.

The Panda Bears were unique in that each pilot had a personalized panda emblem drawn for him by an artistically gifted crew chief. Scarsdale was then a byword for a privileged suburb, as referenced in the postwar musical Guys and Dolls ("You have wished yourself a Scarsdale Galahad, the breakfast-eating, Brooks Brothers type.") In keeping with this upscale, dissolute image, "Scarsdale Jack" Newkirk received a tuxedo-clad, martini swilling panda leaning on his swagger stick.



Unfortunately Newkirk's career and life were cut short when he was killed March 24, 1942, strafing a Japanese airfield in Thailand. He was originally buried locally, but his remains were later recovered and reinterred at a church in Scarsdale a few blocks from my house. I walk by his grave frequently and have visited it a number of times.

Nobody is sure exactly what Newkirk's P-40 looked like. The odds are that it never wore his martini-swilling panda emblem, nor the Disney-designed flying tiger insignia. It was known to be serial P-8196, tactical number 34, with the blue fuselage stripe of the 2nd squadron. I exercised artistic license in putting full insignia on my tribute model.

I found that the existing serial, tactical number and Hell's Angels squadron marking could be removed from the Hobby Boss with careful sanding with 600 or 800 grit sandpaper and minimal touch-up. The new serial and tactical number were pieced together from the Sky Models P-40 sheet and the panda was color laser printed on white stock. Someday I'll do a better one, starting from a better kit, but at least now I have a model to serve as a conversation piece about my village's top war hero.







August

Gradual progress continues on the Expeditor. The RCAF paint scheme happens to break down roughly according to the kit parts, and there are not many tricky joins or fillets, so it makes sense to paint before final assembly. Basically just the silver needs to go on at this point.



August

Latest little project on the bench is a 1/72 Esci S.E.5a that I'm using to re-teach myself rigging before I try it on a kit that really counts, like my Curtiss Hawk. Like the rest of this series, the kit is not bad in shape but very limited in detail. Major assembly went easily and I have attached a few of the monofilament lines. Got a few more to put on, then the wings can be attached.

Paint scheme will be for a postwar Canadian aircraft from the Imperial Gift of surplus machines from Britain. Standard paint scheme for these was wartime PC10 over linen with white panels containing the Canadian civil registrations,G-CY__.



August

Some great projects here August. The P-40 looks very smart and with some very interesting history too, thanks for sharing.

When I rigging my Hanriot, I can take step-by-step pictures, if you like.

Excellent Beechcraft!

In between group builds, the Beech has begun to take on airplane-like characteristics.



August

The Beech looks very nice.

Nigel