Those three kits have arrived lately.
All three are pretty expensive kits that I would love to start building anytime soon.
The Citroën have instructions in french only which might be a small problem.
New arrivals 31th of August 2023
RAF Battle of Britain Airfield Set – Airfix 1/76
I started building this kit a while ago. A kit that I bought from a friend in UK about 7 years ago. Sometimes it takes a while before a kit ends up on the building table.
This is a kit consisting of old kit and contains a Spitfire Mk1, Fuel truck set and a set of airfield personell. These kits have been around for a while as I remember them from when I was growing up. The set also contains glue, a bunch of small jars with acrylic colours and 2 decent brushes.
I started with the Spitfire by removing parts, cleaning up and test fitting a bit.
The interior got some interior grey green, which was typical for RAF at that time.
Next the pilot got some paint, as I need him to be seated before I can glue the fuselage halves.
Once the pilot was finished and some details painted, I could glue the fuselage, rudders and wings.
I had glued the upper wing parts to the lower wing half, but by the looks of it, I perhaps should have glued the upper halves to the body first, as there was a ridge that had to go under the wing root on the body. Doing it the way I did created a few minor fit problems.
After some adjusting and more glueing, I managed to get it look alright. I had to do some scraping and sanding as well.
While putty and stuff was drying I started with the Bedford fuel truck.
There’s no driver or steering wheel on this one. Obviously the driver took it with him when he left the truck! 🙂
The fuel trucks also comes with a few figures that luckily is molded in the same kind of plastic as the kit, which makes things easier. The kit is old so there’s a bit of flash to clean up.
There is also a set of soft figures, but I will use these ones primarily.
I started gluing the undercarriage with suspension parts and rear axles. I also prepared some of the other parts for paint.
All parts prepared for paint.
And then painted RAF blue (Hu96).
Details was added to the rear of the tank.
And then some more painting was done.
Then I did some assembly.
Wheels painted
The whole truck was painted again and the rims on the wheels painted.
I started with the parts to the other trucks.
Then the first truck was assembled.
Next I’ll put a clear cote and add decals.
More on this build in the next post.
Spitfire Mk XII – update 2
After a few sessions, almost all the decals are on.
Just a few decals left, and as the instructions are a bit unclear about some of them, I have to ask some who know, or eventually find the info on Google.
Airfix 1/48 – Spitfire Mk XII – Easter blitz build
As part of the easter holiday I participated in 2 holiday group builds. Build anything, hopefully within the holiday and have fun.
I picked this kit as my entry.
As usual on most planes it starts with the interior.
First some British interior green.
IP and details was painted and the interior was given a wash.
I assembled the wings and painted the prop and spinner.
I solved the problem with having the prop sitting on the plane while working with it, and glued the fuselage.
After sorting the body seams, I glued the wings and then some other parts as well.
The canopy parts was masked.
The landing gears was paint and also some other parts.
I started painting the pilot.
The canopy was glued in place.
Tires was painted and a few other small parts was sorted for future assembly.
Flaps and canopy was painted with interior green.
After a while I could paint primer over the seams. I also practiced painting squiggles.
I need to take care of some seams before painting the camo.
More parts added and some painting done!
I added some boxes and whatnot to the rear and sides.
The part that covers most of the front is assembled earlier in the instructions, but either check the fit then or wait with the lower part to ensure it fits as it should on the lower part of the front. I had to break up mine and re-glue it.
Continuing with some of the parts for the turret. Some of them got painted in the interior green.
In order to get the wheels on, I started to paint the lower hull and backside of the armor plates in the darker tan colour.
Need to do some touch up before using the lighter colours for toning/post shading.
Deciding colours for the Warrior.
I did a test with two different colours to tone the tropical tan with.
For me I think I prefer the lighter one of the two, and I will probably use that one. The choice was so clear I also painted some of the wheels as well.
I’ll see what the community have to say about my choice of colours.
I’ve also started to sort the hatches to cover up the interior when I start to paint. I’ll see if I can keep them in place with some blue tac while painting.
As soon as I’m sorted with covering all the openings, I can start painting the underside at least, so I can get the wheels and tracks in place.
Colour test and tracks for the Warrior.
I tried 2 of the tropical tan colours on the armor plates.
It was hard to take a good picture and hard to tell the difference between the two colours.
One is slightly brighter, but that hardly shows in the pic. I’m thinking of using one of the slightly brighter colours to tone any of these, just to get that sand dusty look I’m after.
I put some gun metal colour on the tracks parts.
I think I need to darken the tracks with some brownish colour and some rust perhaps.
The pads needs to be painted in rubber black as well.
I’ll need the tracks pretty soon to continue the build.
Progressing with the Warrior.
With internal armor plates painted and in place I could finally glue the upper hull in place.
The fit wasn’t entirely perfect, so I had to use some filler.
After the putty had been sanded down I could start to assemble the torsion arms. There is included some sort of jig to get the alignment right, but every arm is put in a slightly different position, so the jig only fit some of the arms. I saw no real use for it.
All the suspension arms in place and a few of the support wheels.
As i soon need to start painting, at least some of the parts, I need to figure which paint to use. I’ll ask my model building friends if any of these will do. If not I have to order new colours.
Next I’ll start with the parts to the tracks, so I can continue the build.
More assembly and some weathering on the Warrior interior.
While the colours were drying, I assembled a few other bits.
Assembled the rear wall.
The underside plate is on.
I did some weathering dustying it somewhat.
Lastly I painted primer/interior colour on some parts that go on soon plus the turret parts.
Those two plates go to the inside of the upper hull and can be positioned in two positions. Not sure which position to chose. They should also be painted green as the bottom interior.
BAE Warrior update.
I assembled the sides to the bottom. I also removed and cleaned up some additional parts for later use.
Once that was assembled I added the seat holders and some other interior parts as they should have the same colour. I then painted the interior parts with primer, whcich turned out to be one of the interior colours. Then the floor part and lower walls was painted green and then the seat cushions got a different shade of green.
Next will be to assemble and perhaps touch up a few parts. I will also add some dirt and wear.