F4 Corsair Diorama WIP #1

I know, another project started!

But this is one with some difference. During this past year, I have managed to pick up two of Tamiya's 1/48th scale models of the Vought F4U-1A corsair kits, one of them being having a motorised propeller. Both kits have the same set of decals in them, so the idea came into my head about building a diorama using both aircraft.

This is the scene that I am trying to recreate. We are on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during WWII, one of the Corsair's is sitting with the wings in the down position with the engine ticking over. The other aircraft has the wings folded and is being towed out onto the deck by the tug to its start-up position. The pilot for the aircraft being towed, is standing on the wing of the other aircraft talking to the pilot sitting in the cockpit.

So far, most of the work done is on the non-motorised Corsair. As can be seen in the photos below, this aircraft is not far off from painting. The good thing about these Tamiya kits is that the wings can be removed by sliding them off the hinge units. This will be great for when they are being transported around and save the risk of them being damaged. Both of the Corsairs are being built straight out of the box, I have not bothered with adding any extra detail to them and will enhance the models with weathering, etc.

The motorised Corsair is still in the early stages of building at the minute. In the instructions for this model, Tamiya say to drill a hole through the underside between he main wings for the wire to pass through into the plastic base supplied with the kit. The sight of this wire hanging between the undercarriage spoils the look of the model. So I am re-routing the wire out of the tail-gear bay and connect a small two pin connector to ease connection to the power supply and avoid securing the model to the base. Modifications have been done to the cockpit area to route the wire through here to the tail of the model. Now I just need to get a small two pin connector to finish this off.

The tug has also been built and is near to the painting stage. This is the same tug that Tamiya supply with another release of the Corsair, which was given to me by a club member as he did not need it. I just need to do a little modification to the tug prior to it being painted. 

I will take some photos of the other Corsair and the tug soon and post them in the next WIP posting of this project.

Monty's Humber WIP #01: SMMI Review Build

Here is another build that I am doing for the SMMI magazine. It is the re-release of the 1/32nd scale model of Monty's Humber from Airfix. For an old kit, from the 1970's I believe, this is not a bad kit considering the age of the tooling. So far it is going together without any issues or problems. You will be able to read my full thoughts on this kit in the review to be found in SMMI over the next couple of months. Keep watching here for postings on the progress of this build.

It's been a while!

Hi All

It' s been a while since my last posting on here, but the last month has been very busy with family stuff, a magazine review build and the workload from my job. This has combination of both things has reduced time spent on general modelling, posting on here and trying to update the club's and my websites.

Gama Goat Review Build:

This was the Tamiya Gama Goat pre-release example for the SMMI review build. To be honest, a great little kit with scope for plenty of conversions if you want. I am expecting this to be in this months issue of SMMI, but it has not been confirmed yet. I was hoping to have the model back for the IPMS(UK) Nationals at Telford, but it was still in the studio for photography. So here are a few photos I took on my phone for now.

Mercedes Benz G4:

This went out in last months (November) issue of SMMI and to my surprise it was a three page spread. I compared it to a 1/35th scale version of the G4 whilst at Telford last week, my one dwarfed it. It is also big compared to other 1/24th and 1/25th scale car to.

Wishlist For Next June:

On Saturday morning at Telford, Airfix unveiled a future release from their 2014 range of new kits. This was a 1/24th scale Hawker Typhoon and the detail is fantastic. Remember what their Mosquito was like,  Airfix has carried on with this level of design and properly a bit further. The likes of Tamiya and Trumpter better watch their backs, Airfix is definitely upping their game. Here's a few photos of the test shot builds on display.

Okay, time's getting on and the wife will be shouting for me to go downstairs. So to round off this post, I will finish off with this photo.

My 1/32nd scale Republic P-47M Thunderbolt got a Commended award in its class at the Nationals in the competitions. The competitions were a tough one this year with space running out on the tables and the quality of entrants was excellent. I definitely need to up my level of modelling for next year.

Anyhow, I will try and update my WIP's during this week, things will back to, well kind of normal for a few months.