Luft46's Blog

A friend of mine was selling off a tonne of kits – he is getting out of modelling so I was able to secure a few extras.

Working clockwise  for the Toad kits from top right is the FW Flitzer, the Ju 488, the BV P202 and a FW Ta 283. With the exception of the Ju488 the rest are duplicates but i’m more than happy to have them. The Ju 488 is a kit that I’ve long lusted after, there is also the Kora kit but both were outside my spending zone so it is nice to pick up a bargain.

For the last 18 months my airbrush has not been working well. Evidently this is because I was not using the right cleaner , ie mineral turps instead of metho and one of my needles was busted. When I went out to Expo I saw the lovely gentleman from runway13.com who cleaned it up and supplied me with a few needed extras. Bottom left is a pack of various spares such as O rings, above this is a tray for securing small parts when airbrushing. I will report later on how effective this all is. In the middle at the top is a new 0.2mm needle etc with my brush set up with a standard 0.3mm needle. To the right are the other needles which didn’t need replacing. Bottom right is a tool to clean out gently the inside of the front end after painting.

Now a little gossip – Hearn’s have changed hands with a much younger owner and team running it. I even spotted a kid in there with his family buying a model kit, he even knew what a Sopwith Triplane was, very unusual. Most noticeable at Expo was who wasn’t there. Hyland;s Bookshop were having a 50th anniversary sale and stayed away as did Showcase Models, perhaps costs are rising a bit too much at the Sandown site. Also pared back were Aeroworks with less to sell and Platypus Publications was also absent. The 3D printer guy from last year did not make an appearance either. Hobby HQ was there with plenty of stock – more later but I heard that his company were involved in a court case , possibly an angry competitor given his prices. Given the pervasiveness of the net I think most retailers are fighting to survive and are very price sensitive. Crowds seemed similar to previous years , many of us were returning visitors in the queue to get in.  The new incarnation of Axis Eagles – Warbirds AMG were also there but that’s one club I will not be getting involved in. I’ll be a little interested to see whether it tanks!

The next update will cover some kit purchases.

This is the last of today’s updates. It will be at least a week before the next one. These two I bought in Frontline Hobbies in Newcastle. The first is a tube of oil paint of Faded Dark Yellow from Mig Productions. This was before he left his self named company to set up yet another venture that competes with his previous two efforts, can anyone else see a pattern here ?????. I intend to try it out on the E25 that is still yet to be painted, don’t ask. Actually i am having my airbrush looked at next weekend.
The second item is a brickwork sheet from Tamiya, it will need to be recoloured as the grey is way too uniform. It may go under my dump bin dio. What was surprising was the price , a measly 6 dollars Australian. Given the combo of Tamiya and frontline, both never noted for bargains i expected 20, so i was very pleasantly surprised.

This rather nice looking kit from Aoshima is in 1.700 scale. It comes from an anime film called Conan the boy from the Future. The animation. Is fairly ordinary and it is very definitely aimed at kids so I may not watch much for research purposes. What the plane does have is a great shape which cries out for Germanification in Luft 46 mode. The kit looks well moulded with the only peculiarity being a detachable nose and tail. These are held on by magnets. I doubt I will keep this feature.

Yet another post, no modelling tonight just blogging. I got these via a friend recently , if you want reviews go to themodellingnews.com – they do a much better job of reviewing these than i can do. As of today they had a build also done of the Ratte kit. It looks nice when finished

Yes this is the wonderful 70’s era Revell Arado 234 kit. And yes I may well build it. But why you ask…… I was at the Wollongong model show in early March and snapped this up for the huge sum of 10 Australian dollars, now worth a piddly 7 dollars US compared to last years high of around 10.50 USD, gotta love exchange rate movements. I bought and built this kit in the late 70’s , yeah I’m that old. I recall it was a pig with much filler  and fettling needed. In those days my latest technique was sprue mixed with glue as a filler, extra smelly that combo. So i have resolved to build it just as badly as the box cover art depicts. It’s riddled with inaccuracies but I am resolved to build this as OOB as possible with the exception of the filler and maybe decals. It should at least be quick but not pretty.

Just

The thought occurs to me that some new tiles as background to my modelling efforts might be nice, people must be getting sick of the same tiles. The Rammer is mostly done except the nose section needs a second PSR cycle. The BV40 now has wings on with the tailplane to be added tonight. This did need a little carving of the indent to conform to the plans, essentially you want the front of the tailplane to be level with the first upward step of the tail area. The underwing sponsoons went on ok but will need a PSR cycle to look finished.
In other news I am off to Melbourne for the model expo next Sunday preceded by some shopping at Hearne’s and Hylands Bookshop on the Saturday. Hopefully i will bring back some kits books and photos, if I find a Dragon 1.6 Aerosan I may be stretching a friendship getting it on as carry on luggage 🙂

Above is the Brengun Zeppelin Rammer and the BV40 after some Milliput has been addded. The BV40 needed a bit of fettling on the cockpit base to get a good fit. Otherwise no major dramas in getting these kits going. Hopefully more updates soon.

Yes I am having a run on Brengun kits. The Natter just needs the canopy to be attached and a little filler and it will be ready for painting now I have finished putting Future on the canopy. I will have a shot of this in the next post. In unrelated the A bomb has exploded – well not literally – getting the fins into the tail section has proved impossible in terms of getting them properly lined up. Rather than throwing it against a wall it has been dismantled and the parts put in the parts drawers.
Also in the mail this week was the Takom Ratte and the Bronco P178 – both nice kits that may get started soonish – we’ll see anyway. If the rain can go away and I can get some spare time I may airbrush the backlog or failing that I may get a new airbrush as I was becoming quite discontented with the old one’s performance.
Below is another  photo of the Rammer boxtop and instructions – it comes as 2 kits but I am only going to make one. Someone else may get the other one.

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