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Kit: Frog (1:72)
This is the Frog Bleriot XI, I started it about 4 years ago, merely as an exercise in rigging the fuselage. I later decided to finish it, using some of the wire wheels I had made. The wings and tail are the kit parts, I didn't take to much care over these, so it's far from a prize-winner. The undercarriage and tail wheel supports are made from brass rod and guitar string, the wheels are nylon fishing line in plastic rims/tyres. The spoke patterns I took from the Bleriot at the Shuttleworth Collection.
Kit: Airfix (1:72)
This was built when the kit was first released, many many years ago.It was finished in green and rigged with cotton thread from Mum's sewing box. I later learned that RFC green was more brown, so it was overpainted gloss brown, and some white outlines crudely drawn around the wing roundels. What a masterpiece! Still, everyone starts somewhere, and I hope I've improved since then.
Kit: Airfix (modified) (1:72)
This was an early attempt at modifying a standard kit- the Airfix DH4. The inspiration may have come from a modelling magazine, but it's so long ago I'm not sure. I can't even remember whether the new nose was made from plastic or balsa, but it is scratchbuilt- not the Blue Rider conversion kit. I am sure the radiator is balsa. The arrow markings were hand painted - I didn't know about masking tape back then.
Kit: Maquette (1:72)
I bought this to be a quick build, but was shamed into improving the basic kit a little. I removed the 'starved cow' ribs, and scratch built a better Scarf ring, but that was about all. The decals are from the kit, and are a bit pale. It gets displayed with the DH4 and DH9.
Kit: Eastern Express (1:72)
This is the Eastern Express 1/72nd Morane Saulnier I kit. I built it out-of-the-box. I put it together while at the Peterborough Model Show, between manning the club table and browsing the other tables and vendor stalls. The modelling bench was a cutting mat on my knees. Painting and rigging was finished off at home later. This kit is really basic, there is no cockpit detail, not even a seat.
It must be 35 years since I last built a kit in a day.
Kit: Classic planes (1:72)
This is the 1/72 scale Martinsyde Elephant vacform kit by Classic Planes. All the cockpit interior is scratch-built except the engine and seat. I added all the extras as there are so many holes and cooling slot that show the interior. The radiator was made from plastic card with net curtain material bonded on either side with CA. The pump was turned from brass rod, the handle is turned copper wire. Instruments were turned plastic rod handpainted. The seat belt straps are cut from aluminium cooking dish foil Progress on this kit stopped once the fuselage was closed up - I found the wing chord is too narrow.
Kit: Phoenix (modified) (1:72)
This is a modified PV2bis kit, intended to show the aircraft as it was when originally built. The main changes are shortening and dropping the top wings so they sit on the fuselage, extending the length of the ailerons, and scratchbuilding the pontoon floats. All the struts were drilled out and brass rod inserted in the ends, so that the model could be assembled dry, and then glued when everything was in place. Cutting out the 'V' struts and getting the alignment correct was time-consuming. To get the float/lower wing/fuselage alignment correct I built a jig out of scrap plastic card.
Kit: Phoenix (1:72)
This was built in parallel with the PV2 model, using the same technique for assembling the multiplicity of struts. For both these models I tried making the instrument dials by drilling the kit panels with a flat ended dental burr, painting black, then scribing the markings and needle with a sharp point so the white shows through. This works quite well, but it doesn't show in the photos. I'm now trying the same technique on the end of plastic rod, for black and white dials. The rib tapes are simply painted white over the first coat of CDL, the whole wing then washed over with CDL diluted with Clear. Problems with the kit? During the build I found some drawings that show the top wing chord much deeper than the kits, but I can't find any pictures that are definitive. My gut feeling is that they are too narrow.
Kit: Airfix modified (1:72)
One of my early attempts at modifying a standard kit, in this case an Airfix Avro 504K. The cowling and other special markings were handpainted, this was in those far away days before personal computers were invented to print your own transfers.
Kit: Scratchbuilt/Conversion (1:72)
Siddley RT1: This aircraft was designed as an improved variant of the RE8, but only four were built, with various engine installations. I used the 1/72nd Airfix RE8 kit as the basis for the model. There are minor modifications to the fuselage, to raise the gunners cockpit and rear decking. The engine cowling was made from thick aluminium foil from a foil dish. The wings are scratch built from 5thou plasticard, scribed gently with a metal pointer to give the ribs. Then I folded the wing along the leading edge around a shaped plastic core to give some strength.
Rudder, fin, and tailplanes are made from scribed plasticard. The unfinished look? I found two roundels that were the right size for the top wing, but one of them disintegrated when I soaked it, it was so old. Still haven't found any more. The kit propeller is so awful I decided to find an aftermarket one, just haven't done so yet.
Kit: Toko (1:72)
This is out of the box, in the markings of Georgi Stepanovich Sapozhnikov of the 1st Soviet Aviatryiad. Sapozhnikov died in a flying accident on 8 September 1920 while flying this aircraft.
Modakit (1:72) Vacform
The Nissen hut was first designed in 1915, with Mk2 and Mk 3 huts by 1917. This is the basic hut, 16ft wide 10ft high and 36' long. It was made as a simple hut with no extra windows, though these are an option in the kit. The stove was scratch built from tube and card, plus a plinth to match pictures found on the internet.
The floor panel was scribed with 6" planks, painted with Bleached Bone with Sienna oil paint to make the wood grain. The insides of the doors were finished the same way. The internal framing was made from strip styrene, painted dark grey. External colours are Matt Dark Earth and Dark Green.
One window glass came off when I dropped the model before the roof was put on and the carpet gnomes took it without me noticing. This was beneficial in that I could adjust the framing after the roof went on, and I could get the chimney out when it dropped inside. The window was then 'boarded up' to finish the model.
Later a victorious pilot hung up a piece of lozenge fabric outside the window.
Kit: Scaleplanes (1:72)
Vickers FB19 is a 1/72nd Scaleplanes vacform, my first attempt at vacforms.
Kit: Emhar (1:72)
Russian design in service mid 1917. Emhar kit 1/72nd (nearer to 1/66th when measured). Built straight from the box, apart from scratch-built wire wheels and some rigging. This was the first kit I'd built after a long break, and the first time I'd used monofilament for rigging, except for the elevator wires which are fuse-wire. The monofilament was a success, although two flying wires have sagged with age and handling. For the first time I tried to put some laminations into the propeller. I used Games Workshop red glaze to give a red tint to the Kleer topcoat.
HP O/100 and O/400: These are both the 1/72nd Airfix kit. The O/400 is OOB. The O/100 has scratch built engine nacelles and the interplane struts altered to suit at the rear of the nacelle. The full chord roundels were handpainted. These were built sometime around 1968-69.
This aircraft was designed as an improved variant of the RE8, but only four were built, with various engine installations. I used the 1/72nd Airfix RE8 kit as the basis for the model. There are minor modifications to the fuselage, to raise the gunners cockpit and rear decking. The engine cowling was made from thick aluminium foil from a foil dish. The wings are scratch built from 5 thou plasticard, scribed gently with a metal pointer to give the ribs. Then I folded the wing along the leading edge around a shaped plastic core to give some strength. It was only after the model was almost finished that I realised that the ribs on the undersurfaces should be different to take account of the curvature. Rudder, fin, and tailplanes are made from scribed plasticard.