Model Forum / General / Models / April 2008

I've had a very successful weekend, both in my old hobby and my new one.

In my old hobby, my F-15A and RF-4E are just about complete.  A have a brace
of Stanier railway coaches that are ready for weathering.  I'm at the point
where I'm just about to start the next batch of models.  More on that later.

As for my new hobby...  it's baking!   Okay, so maybe the chocolate cake I
baked yesterday didn't come out looking like the pictures in the recipe, but
it's still quite edible.  So I'm eating it!  :-D  And yesterday I learned
how to make pastry, so I'm quite pleased.  I now have enough meat and potato
pies to last me all week!!!

So now, I'm relaxing with a beer and musing on a few things which, if you'll
indulge me, I'll share.

Such as...   do you ever revisit completed projects?   I would have said,
given the wide choice of subjects available, that I don't because there is
no need to, but I've just realised that I *do* !

When I was a kid,  I just used to bang my kits together and put the decals
on bare plastic. Then one day (I must have been about eight years old) my
Grandad gave me a present. It was a Revell 1/72 Spitfire kit, together with
a selection of enamel paints (green, brown, light blue, black), a paintbrush
and a small bottle of turps. He reckoned it was about time I started to
paint my kits. So... I did. That was the first model I ever completed
properly.  Okay...  I'm sure that the colours weren't quite right and the
paint must have been *very* thick, cos it took days to dry, but still.  I
was thrilled with it and so was my Grandad.  The decals were for Douglas
Bader's aircraft, complete with D-B codes.

A couple of years ago, I had another go at that subject. This time I used a
Tamiya 1/48 kit, with an Ultracast prop and seat, accurate colours from
Xtracrylix, sprayed on and dry within three minutes of application, decals
from Victory Productions and the benefits of nearly forty years modelling
experience. [1]  But yet, as I applied the decals and the model came to
life, all of a sudden I had one of those Nostalgia Moments.  I might as well
have been that eight year kid again, building his first "real" model.  I
love my hobby!

The next model I "made" properly was an He219, probably Revell again.

Anyroads...   I had a friend called Keith who also made models.  We used to
build as many different kits as possible. These were the days when there was
a couple of new Airfix kits every month and the Airfix catalogue was crammed
with all sorts of exotic models that we would love to build.  Keith had an
older brother who was also a model builder (as was Keith's brother's friend,
who IIRC was Canadian).  Keith's brother and his friend were lots older than
we were. They were pretty much grown-ups (They were probably twelve!) and as
such they made far better models than we could manage. I can remember
Keith's brother showing us his completed Airfix 1/24 Spitfire. Spitfires
were all the rage then because it was 1969 and the film "The Battle Of
Britain" was showing at the flicks.

My Dad took me to see the film and I think it may have had some sort of
effect on me. <Enzo glances up at his display shelves to see 15 Spitfires>
Hmmm... yes...  it's possible.  ;-)  That film led to a few misconceptions.
For instance, Keith and I were convinced that British planes always left a
white smoke trail when they were shot down, while German planes left a black
one. But, whatever - I wanted to make another Spitfire. This was against the
rules, because I already had one. There were millions of other kits that I
could build. Why build something that I've already built?  Keith was
puzzled.

Nevertheless, I got an Airfix Spitfire IX. The instructions said I had to
paint it dark grey and dark green.  "That's wrong!" Keith's brother told me.
"They used Mark 9s in the Battle of Britain and they were brown and green."
Well, Keith's brother was right.  There *were* MkIXs in the film and they
*were* brown and green.  But if they weren't painted grey and green, why
would Airfix say that they should be? So, I painted my MkIX grey and green.
After all, Airfix will always get things right, won't they? Ah, the
innocence of youth! But in that case, they did!  The decals were for Johnny
Johnson's JE-J.  When I finished JE-J, I put it next to D-B.  *Two*
Spitfires!  That's unheard of!  But.. It set me on a course.

Fast forward forty years. Guess what is sat next to Bader's Spitfire II on
my display shelves.  That's right, Johnson's IX.  Different scale, Different
kit (Hasegawa IX, Victory decals) - same sense of nostalgia and achievement
as I put them together!

Choosing Christmas and birthday presents for me was never a problem for my
family.  "He likes airfixes!"  My tenth birthday could have been a cause for
a family feud, however.  Two aunts (from different sides of the family)
bought me the same present!  National disaster!!!!   Not for me though.  I
got two Airfix F-104 Starfighter kits.  Y'know, the one that had two choices
of colour scheme, Canadian and German. I was thrilled to bits.  Fast forward
those forty years again.  See the Canadian and German F-104s on my shelves?
Hasegawa kits, opened and detailed cockpits, sprayed and weathered finishes.
exactly how those old airfixes always looked in my eyes!

What else?  Hmmmm.   During the early 1970s, Matchbox kits became available.
Their selling point was that they were moulded in two colours and didn't
need painting. I wasn't too bothered as by that time I was painting
everything anyway.  Then, Matchbox released a series of larger kits with
three colours. One of the first was a British Phantom. I snapped it up!  I
used the boxtop decal option for 6 Sqn.  The resulting model still exists,
packed away in my parents' attic, next to my Deep Stash, but another model
of exactly the same aircraft is sat on my shelves right now. It's from the
Fujimi kit, so it doesn't have trenches a scale six inches deep along the
panel lines. It has a detailed cockpit interior, resin seats and rather than
a full load of SNEB pods (which on the real thing would have fouled the
ground on landing) it has a more accurate load of two CBLS. The decals are
by Modeldecal and it represents XV895, the same aircraft in the Matchbox
kit.

Around the same time, I built another British Phantom. If memory serves this
kit was by Frog (which may have been re-popped in later years by Hasegawa).
The decals were for a Royal Navy FG1 from 767NAS - the one with a yellow
bird on the fin. Again, an updated version of that model is now in my
collection.

Matchbox then released a series of 1/32 aircraft, the first one being a
Spitfire 24.  I built it in the kit markings of 80 Sqn. Of course, the
Airfix 1/48 version is now on my shelf, again in 80 Sqn markings.

I can remember the Hasegawa F-8 being released in the late 70s. I built mine
using the kit decals as Dick Bellinger's Mig killer from VF-162.  A quick
glance at my selves shows the same aircraft there yet again, this time the
Academy kit with Aviprint decals.

My previous experiences with multiple Spitfires and F-104s led to a
realisation.  I'm fascinated by the way things change over a period of time.
I will happily build numerous models of the same aircraft, many of which
only have minor differences in structure and markings. Of course, this meant
that I got the Phantom bug. Over five thousand of the things built with
probably hundreds of different colour schemes.

It must have been in 1980 that Italeri released their F-4G model. This was a
very modern kit and could be built as an F-4G or a slatted F-4E. Shortly
afterwards Esci released their short nosed F-4s and a hard-wing F-4E and I
almost reached critical mass! I had myself a bit of a Phantom Phrenzy.  I
used a Modeldecal sheet to build a Luftwaffe F-4F, a Bare Metal sheet to
build a 57FIS F-4E, a Microscale sheet to build a Michigan ANG F-4D. I built
an Alconbury based RF-4C in Euro-1 camo using the Italeri kit and a
selection of MicroScale lettering sheets.  I ended up with a collection of
half a dozen F-4s before I was posted to Germany and had to give up
modelling.

About three years ago, I came back to aircraft modelling, having long since
left the RAF. I've noticed that I keep revisiting modelling subjects from my
youth.  The Euro-1 RF-4C from Alconbury returned, courtesy of Xtradecals.

I also have models in my stash that have decals sheets already associated
with them. It's surprising how many of those replicate projects from
yesteryear.

For instance, the initial release of the Airfix F-14 (1974, maybe?) had
decals for VF-1 and VF-2. In my stash there is a Hasegawa F-14 with a Cam
Decals sheet for VF-1 in the box!

That Luftwaffe F-4F that I mentioned. I used Modeldecal sheet 46 to
represent 38+57 of JBG36 at Greenham Common in 1977. The jet had a belly
tank converted into a travelling bar, complete with a cooling unit to chill
a keg of beer!  I actually met that same aircraft at numerous airshows in
Germany in the late 80s, still with the same converted belly tank. JBG36
were a popular unit at airshows, I can tell you!  :-D  I now have a pristine
copy of Modeldecal sheet 46 and the intention has always been to build the
same aircraft again, using exactly the same sheet as I did a quarter of a
century ago but using the Hasegawa kit instead. However, that plan has since
changed. I'll still build 38+57 in those markings, but I'll use AirDoc
decals, which are better quality than the old Modeldecal ones. The zaps and
markings from the bar/belly tank will still come from Modeldecal.

How about that 57FIS F-4E?  Well, that is just about to start its journey
across my workbench. Again, I'll use the Hasegawa kit, but the decals will
be from *exactly* the same sheet as I used a quarter of a century ago. I
have a new copy printed by Expert's Choice.

A Hasegawa F-4C/D kit in my stash has a Cutting Edge decal sheet with
markings for Michigan ANG.  so there's another youthful project to be
revisited.

And then there are the models that I *wanted* to build in my youth, but
never managed. An air superiority blue F-15A from the 555 TFTS?  Photos of
them were plastered all over the aviation and modelling magazines in the
mid-70s and I always wanted to build one. Thirty-three years later, there's
now one sat on my workbench, almost complete.

A good 20% of my models are modern updatings of projects from my youth.
There are myriads of different schemes available on the market, certainly
far more than I could ever build in a lifetime, but I still find myself
revisiting projects that I built decades ago. It's fun!

Maybe I should build an He219.

[1]  I can remember that there was a glue fingerprint on the fuselage of
that first Spitfire. One would have thought that, with the benefits of that
forty years of experience, I would have learned how to avoid glue
fingerprints on my models. Sadly, it's not so...  but I *have* learned how
to get rid of them!  :-)