Luft46's Blog

I’ve been working on too many real world projects lately including helping children with tests. Also putting in a path in the backyard and applying for a job so little inclination to model despite a four day weekend. The Tornado is now painted but needs a final touch up and the last parts added, maybe this week.  Below are shots of that and my workbench, note the real world intrusion on the right!

The desk has just been coated with raw umber oil paint and will need a few days to dry. The beige had two coats and as per advice the raw umber was applied with a bit of a kitchen sponge, due to the awkwardness of some shapes I used two brushes to apply this first on some parts and then finished off with the sponge. I am away for a few days so this will stop me fiddling with the oil paint while it dries.

After a rather long break I have been modelling again. Have slipped into doing a long planned vignette called ” But it’s refence material dear ” based loosely on figure painters, ok very loosely, it’s more of a pastiche than anything. I am also intending to spray tonight on the Tornado.

At the front is the desk with its first coat of Lifecolor Light Stone or beige  with to the left a computer monitor and to the right is my female figure and behind that is the office chair.

The end result of all this tidying up. Compare the cupboard to my first post.

The desk

FW Einsitzer w/ BMW 802 from Planet. This kit suffered a mishap today but is essentially nearly paint ready after a bit of work.

105mm Flak gun – just needs a bit of reassembly, will do over the weekend.

LWS on Steroids. This 1/72 resin kit from Milicast? Destined for a diorama set in John Baxters Luft46 universe. Following on from the 2009 issue by Hobby Boss of a 1/35 version I wanted to add two torpedos to the side, more Machine Guns etc for the Second assault on Stalingrad or the Volga or similar. This is set in the Volga boat strike story in his first book but from a different perspective.

Kora Panther Flak guns – this is stalled due to my slackness in getting some detailed Flak guns for this project that I need from Schatton Modellbau in Germany unless someone else does them in 1/72. Base vehicle is the Revell kit and I will do both versions  ( early and late ) in the same camo so I can swap them out as desired. Just need to restart this one.

AR E 377A manned version. This is a rather still born project to convert this plane over to a piloted version. It foundered on the lack of a suitable canopy and has been doing nothing for years now. Interestingly it does have the landing trolley parts so these go back to the He162/Ar E 377 project to help finish that one off. The rest can be a donation. On the right is what I want and the rest in the box can go.

B-17G for Germanified from Revell. A rather big undertaking this kit, not really many chnges to do, the bombs are now the equivalent German type and the ball turret will be replaced by a remote controlled one. This is for my Munchen 48 universe if it gets finished though it could be used elsewhere.

Seehund at Speyer. This 1/35 diorama is an attempt to reproduce this scene from 1988 and was started soon after. Unfortunately as the real sub on display is a somewhat mutilated version of this sub it has chewed time like nothing else. I am now using the Bronco plastic version after trying with the Verlinden resin one and it is still frustrating. Maybe if I went easier on myself this would get finished.

Lippisch P13B from Anigrand. the canopy on this one doesnt fit so I need to pivot it and detail the cockpit a little then paint. Not really much to do.

This is the AV Me 334 a rather average kit that needed a new canopy and with a bit of work a 262 canopy will fit though the first one fitted was a bust with the canopy fogging despite being futured. This kit is potentially doable but its not at the top of the heap.

Marder VI – this was an attempt to make a Marder like SPG based on the Dragon Maus kit fused with a number of other kits. The muse has well and truly left the building for this one and I will be passing it on to someone else shortly.

Heinkel P 1073 – Planet. Now I have decided that I will need to do this kit wheels up it looks doable. I could not find any suitable white metal u/c legs so this decision has been forced on me. It is back in the cupboard to follow up after the ready to paint kits are done.

Arado E580. Designed as a He 162 competitor from Planet suffers from a very average canopy that does not fit being overlarge. The canopy needs rcasting and new metal u/c and is off to the knackers yard. I have started on a master for a new canopy in Milliput but it needs more work before casting.

FW 190 F8/R-14 from Revell. This is a job for someone else that started out as a project with one of my sons that was never finished. It will need a paint cleanup but really nothing much to stop me finishing this kit at all. And a new propellor but I have a few of the Hase 190’s that I use for spares that can supply this. It will be in the next wave of projects. The model is on the first issue of Military in Scale that had this plane as a conversion in it. Sadly this magazine folded late last year.

Sanka Mark B from Bandai alledgedly in 1/72. This is a kit of a plane that bears some resemblance to the Shinden but was featured in an Anime film. Quite an unusual film, a very dark contemplation of a commercial war focusing on the pilots sense of futility, not easy to watch but good. This comes with two kits to the box, one will be enough with it paint ready now.

The next two will be packed away for the moment.  The first is the Hase262 combined with the Toad Resins C-2b conversion. The major problem with this is the fuel pipe under the tail. This was done in white metal and frankly needs replacing which is a fair bit of fabrication work which I do not feel like doing.
The second of these is the Double Swallow combing a 262 and a Hein, both of which had the nickname of Swallow. This idea of mine was realised in diagram form by a friend but nothing has been done in anger yet and it looks like it will be a while still.

Henschel P 135 – Airmodel – this is stalled because somehow I lost the main undercarriage bays and becaue it has really nice u/c legs and wheels I want to do it undercarriage down, I cannot find this kit on eBay or anywhere else so I can make a copy so for the moment it rests.

Okha 53 – Unicraft,  you get the picture from the brand name, needs the tailpalnes attached, impossible without much swearing and multiple repositioning attempts as I already know.

Dalek from Reshape in 1/8 scale. This is a dog of a kit that needs a repray of the cream colour after much masking and painting of the bumps. Not this year I think.

Regular readers ( if there are any ) will remember my first post was of the Cupboard of Doom. Indiana Jones like I decided to finally assault this Cupboard. Over the last year or so various expeditions had been made to rescue the odd kit and do some work on it but none of these expeditions had  resulted in a finished kit so last week I decided to get serious. I have so far hauled out about half of them so here is a quick list with photos

IL2 – Academy, ok this one suffered from some major problems in the air filter which is crap and a couple of other areas, additionally it is the single seater and I love the 2 seater in memory of doing the Airfix one as a kid. The final thing that killed this kit off was the announcement that Tamiya will do a 1/72 two seater this year and I would much rather that one. End result – airbrush practice bed.

Tornado – Mando Models – a resin boat powered by a V-1 engine that has given me no end of grief, especially the pylons and strakes on the rear of the boat constantly falling off. Compound that with trying to use Lifecolor paints through an airbrush and having no end of problems with that and this kit has struggled for a long while. I have now settled on a paint scheme of Tamiya undercoat for the bottom and Xtracrylics RLM 66 for the top, not necessarily correct but as it is K46 who can argue. This makes this kit doable now.

262 Schnellbomber – a combo of the Hase kit and the ARBA Schnellbomber conversion. This is a relatively easy conversion and there is no real good reason this kit hasnt been finished apart from my usual reluctance to airbrush which can be a deal breaker. Anyway this kit should get finished now.

Germanified Shinden – no reason not to finish, just needs painting

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Entwurf 3 from Planet – This just required a little work around the engine and the cockpit and it is now ready for primer after I fit the canopy.

Ar E 377 and He 162D – this is the Dragon kit with the addition of the  ? Cooper Details conversion for the Forward Swept Wing and HeS011 engine. This is all ready to paint also though somhow the trolley has gone missing but not the wheels, I suspect it will turn up in another box soon. I will paint the rest anyway.

Panzer Draisine from Planet, yet another resin kit. This was mostly ready except for the gun and brass details. I had to replace the gun from my spares box as the other one was claimed by the carpet monster. Also I will add in some machine guns to better represent it in a ready to go position rather than a resting one.

Anyway time for a break so back soon with Part 2

As mentioned in Part 1 this is the reviews for the pocket mags app.

Usually I buy around one or two magazines a month, this month it was three, two of which are unusal for me.

Military Illustrated Modeller is Brett Greens and Marcus Nicholls  effort that deals alternately each month with Aviation and Armour Subjects. Its now up to Issue Twenty and this is the first that I have purchased, generally I have struggled to find even one article of interest in each edition. This issue was a winner  with two articles on the Biber being a build and a diorama article, with the bonus being sixteen photos that were new to me . Many of the other articles except the Euro Militaire photos were of minor interest to me and I suspect it may be another twenty issues before my next purchase. Unusually this magazine is perfect bound with thicker than average paper and cover. I am not a great fan of either editor but having eighteen pages on the Biber was always going to suck me in.

Speaking of Marcus I picked up a copy of Tamiya Model Magazine mostly for the review of the Meng Kayaba kit. This magazine is one of the last generalist titles out there with the demise of Military in Scale which got quite schizophrenic in how it was treating Aviation subjects with adding this then splitting it off to a seperate magazine then reincorporating it again. The only other major generalist magazine is of course  Fine Scale Modeller which is a mere shadow of its former glory and so much more dumbed down. I picked up a copy of that in Thailand when there last month as it was the only modelling magazine available.
With Tamiya magazine you can always guarrantee a car or motor bike at the front to start the fun which I usually skip over. Seven pages were devoted to the Meng review and this seems quite thorough. The new releases section while not big does cover a reasonable range and the final item of interest was Spencer Pollard the former editor of Military in Scale joining this magazine. Reading the back section I noticed that Brett Green would be doing a build of the Simca 5 by Tamiya in Model Military International, funnily enough the same kit done by Marcus Nicholls in the Tamiya Magazine, Tamiya sem to be getting their moneys worth from this publishing group or is that me being cynical. Also Spencer gets an interview in that same magazine, cross promoting in the Great Channel Nine tradition.

Scale Military Modeller International rounds out the collection. This is by far my favourite magazine for non aircraft modelling, whilst Gary Hatcher is the News editor he hasnt been allowed to mess around too much with the contents and screw it up. SAMI is also a magazine that has gone downhill recently. Whilst no great fan of Richard Franks and his obsession with Hasegawa releases the more “commercial” model that SAMI uses has seen the virtual demise of short reviews and the few given are shall we say sanitised in their wording, I used to know what to expect after reading a SAMI review, now I dont bother.
What is pleasing is how much content in the marketplace is shown under various areas and that the reviews are not too self serving.

Just a last word, you will notice the pocketmags.com logo in the bottom left of this cover, this is an app that allows (allegedly) you to be able to purchase the magazine on your tablet device. Having been in existence over a year it still is very flaky,  have tried it both on an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy and it works on neither, for a clue just check the apps ratings and comments, unfortunately both the publishers and pocket mags are in fervent denial of its present lack of usefulness, I really hope this changes in the future if only to be able to read what I have already paid for.