That time of year

I went into my local modelzone to pick up a couple of tins of paint on Wednesday and nearly walked into a great big pile of boxes, what a stupid place to put them i thought. When i looked closer they were a load of Revell kits, some with over 50% off. I picked up the 1/32 Ju87 and then put it back when i noticed the 1/72 Victor for silly money, with it tucked under my arm i went in search of my paint but they don't do Humbrol stuff in this store, Oh well !.

I did see just as i was about to pay, the new RAF colours that Tamiya have just released to go with the new 1/32 spitfire so i picked them up instead.

The victor has been started and I'm going to do the Gulf war version.

A good start to the year

Two days into 2010 and i nearly have two more additions to the collection. The Airfix Corsair is finished all bar the doors that cover the arrestor hook and tail wheel and the Airfix Javelin is just awaiting the windscreen to be fixed in place and the gear bay doors. I must say that I'm impressed with both of these kits.

The new Airfix Mk IX Spitfire was a lovely kit to put together but the decals really tested my patience. I am so glad that i chose to do the "PFT" version and not the boring (same as everyone else) J.EJ, i think the d-day stripes would have pushed me over the edge.

All change

I've had a change around at home. My normal room to do my modelling is at the back of the garage in the spare room but with the cold weather now here it was time to move back inside for the duration. It's looking very tidy at the moment.

During the last week or two i have brought some new kits, namely the new Airfix releases. The FA.2 sea harrier looks like a very nice kit and so does the Mk IX spitfire . I also got the Corsair , i know it's an old kit but it's an aircraft i like .

The only problem at the moment is that i have had to leave my compressor and airbrushes outside in the other room for now . I have seen quite a cheap spray booth so i may get that after Christmas.

Kits on the go at the moment are the first of three Javelin's and the Corsair. The corsair is a very basic kit with lots of raised detail but is does include (in my opinion) some nice marking's.

Javelin

I'm not normally a lucky person but whilst on the long journey to Telford last month i happened to mention to my friend that i was looking for an Airfix Javelin. He said to me that he" may have one in the loft if i was interested", "oh yes " says i . A few days later at work he asked me if i would like to buy a special package consisting of two 1/72 Javelin FAW9/9R and a 1/72 Javelin T.3 plus some reference material as well all for £10.

I BET YOU CAN'T GUESS WHAT I SAID TO HIM ?

About time too

I have managed to finish the Tamiya FW190 F9 at last. I made a few mistakes on the way but it looks good to me and that's all that counts. Amongst the few problems were, The mottle went wrong (my fault for not following people's advice), gear retraction arms put on upside down (my fault for not looking at instruction's properly) and whilst cutting off the final part from the sprue(the step) it snapped in half and was lost forever on the floor (not my fault). I did enjoy this one , well i must of because i wanted to keep going back to it which is more than could be said for the Xtrakit spitfire XII. I keep looking at it and it just doesn't seem right, the gear doors are either too short or I've put them on wrong (quite possible), anyway it has just been put back on the shelf for another day.

State of play

Right !

At the moment everything is on hold, my wife is in quarantine with swine flu and i have been trying to sort the kids out and juggle my shift work. With some help from the in- laws i think we may have pulled it off.

My normal reaction when i can't get to do some modelling is to go and get some kits out of the stash and have a good read through the instructions and work out which paints I'll need for the job. If you were to look inside the lid of most of my kits now you'll find lots of numbers, i tell my daughter they are secret codes, i think she has now realised that they are just paint numbers.

A picture at last

This is a the Spitfire Mk XII that i have finished painting and decaling. At the moment this kit has it's undercarriage legs on and awaiting the rest of the sticky out bits and then the canopy and varnish coat.