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Kit: Roseplanes (1:72)
Roseplanes vac kit of the AWFK8. Fully rigged with .010 surgical wire. Entire front l/g is scratch built from evergreen stock. Struts are Contrail replacements...snap fit. Decals are Rosemont....excellent quality.
Kit: Airfix (1:72)
Thuis is the Airfix 1/72 Avro 504 K. Inside the fuselage it reads 1976. Crude and inaccurate to say the least. The first job was to remove 99.9% of the ribs, and do something about the total lack of interior other than instrument panels. The seats were tossed and replaced with something more believable. Control sticks, and seatbelts were added.
A Google search turned up some super photos of restored Avros in Museums. These were used as rigging reference. The Airfix instructions give no help, and the profiles are again inaccurate. The main color is RAF Dark Slate Gray. ANA Sand was used as CDL. The struts are MM wood covered with Tamiya clear Orange. The wheels are from the spares box as are the decals,save the serial #.
The model is rigged with Ethicon stainless. Rigging took approx 1 hour. The wing control horns have been replaced with Evergreen strip stock. The kit engine was also tossed,and one from the spares box was used. The ailerons were cut and repositioned as was the rudder. The wing tip "skids" are brass wire. The turtleback stringers were replaced with stretched sprue. The windscreens are scratched from clear acetate sheet.
Kit: Form-A-Plane (1:72)
This is the Form-A-Plane Be2...1/72...vac kit. Fully rigged with .010 surgical wire. This is my second ever vac kit.
Kit: Roden (1:72)
This is Roden's 1/72 Saunders built late version Felixstowe F.2A.
My copy of this kit was molded perfectly. No sink marks or flash to contend with. Upon completion of construction, the model sat for about nine months.
I used Model Master and AeroMaster Paints. Lots of Elmer's white glue. Nearly 13' of Ethicon stainless for rigging. The struts and props are painted with my homemade "clear brown" paint concoction.
Three sheets of decals were necessary in order to find ones that didn't explode upon contact with water. Roden generously supplied replacements.
This is the Airfix Handley Page 0400. The kit needed a lot of work before assembly could start. Sanding all the wing ribs off was job #1.
Interior detail shots can be seen on the "Giants cook up" page.
The model was painted Russian earth gray, and Radome tan was used for the CDL. A little better than 8' of Ethicon stainless steel was used as rigging. The rigging itself took about three hours. Seatbelts were added to the interior, and the leftover Felixstowe m/gs replaced the kit supplied m/gs.
Kit: Classic Planes (1:72)
This is the Classic Planes vacu-form kit. Very basic and quite crude. Entire interior is scratch built except for Rosemont resin seat. Struts are snap-fit contrail strut stock. Wheels are Rosemont replacements. Prop is Aero Club white metal provided in the kit. Model was painted with Model Master paint, and fully rigged with .005 stainless steel.
This is the Roden Woolsey Viper Se5a. I didn't care much for this kit at all. Roden's attempt to make several versions from a single mole results in a lot of extra work for the builder.
A night fighter version scheme was sent to me by a fellow list member, along with photos, a profile, and a formula for "Nivo". I accepted the challenge to turn an otherwise boring PC10 and CDL model into something different.
The profile showed that the front struts were striped in PC10 and natural wood. Using an old comb proved perfect for the job. The wheels and "low-viz" roundels were easily accomplished by using a circle template. The "streamers" on the rear struts are flattened fly tying lead. All together this project took less than a week of actual working time.
Special thanks to Andrei Koribaniks for the scheme...the formula, and his invaluable help. Also special thanks to Ross Moorehouse, and Karl Juelch for their encouragement during this project.
Kit: Novo (1:72)
This is the Novo kit of the Vickers Vimy. The instructions are marked as being made by the Novo Toy Company. After looking at the parts, this became quite evident. All the wing ribs were removed, and restored by masking them off, and spraying several coats of paint to build up a slight ridge. The "bench" was replaced with Rosemont resin seats. Seatbelts and interior structure were added. Rosemont resin m/gs replaced the kit parts. The decals were replaced except for the serial number, and the rudder markings are airbrushed. The plane is fully rigged with .010 stainless steel by Ethicon. This model took the Best WW1 Aviation award at the 1999 IPMS region 4 contest in Pittsburgh.