New Purchase Revell 1/144 F-16C

  I saw this model in ModelZone the last time I went to Lakeside with Nat.  It's the new tooling and I just had to get it, wished I had gotten 3 now as their 3 for 2 offer is still on... bugger.  First the pictures. :)

   Here is the box art for it.  Typically in Revell fashion of late it's an awful CAG/Anniversary scheme.  Don't think much of this one at all.  I'm guessing it's an Texas based squadron or something.  Also by the looks of it, it's loaded out as a Wild Weasel of some kind.

   The scheme looks like any other F-16 but with the Texas flag thingy put on it.  I suppose it's not too bad, but then again it is the only scheme they have got on here.  It wouldn't of killed them to of put on a low-viz scheme of some kind.  However unlike the F-15E that was released earlier this year, the important stencils are not in the fancy parts. So you can make a low-viz one of some kind I guess...

   The decals, not much to see here really.  You got all the stencils on the bottom right and the other bits all around it.  Not much more to say here really.  I might just scrap these decals and use the stencils on the F-15E, not too sure yet.

   The first sprue, first thing that might come to mind is the fact the top fuselage is cut in half.  I assume that is in case an 2 seater gets released later on.  The detail is amazing, we got 3 tanks and two sidewinders as well.  And the usual other bits and bobs that makes up a plane.  Now that I look at it, there's a bit of flash around the bottom part of the fuselage and that corner of the sprue.

   Now the top half of the fusleage.  Also one thing that might catch your eye is the fact that there is two tailplanes.  If I read correctly, this is so you can make either an F-16A Block10 or an F-16C.   Not too sure which is which but I will look into that, I always liked F-16 Block 52+'s dunno why..  You can also see 4... I think they are AMRAAMS, still thats a cool load out.

   I said earlier that you could make the A or C models, theres two tails for it in this model.  Also you have two HARM's, two GBU 10's (?) and some kind ECM pod, not too sure what one it is.  Guess I will find out when I look into it.  The canopy is here also, doesn't look like it can be cut in half easily either for an open "office"... shame. 

   A close up of the front top fuselage, look at the detail of the HUD, first time I have ever seen anything like that from a Revell model in 1/144.   I wonder if the moulds are from another company like Trumpeter or Eduard??  HHmm... still lots of nice detail there that I can dry brush out.

   Back half of the fuselage here, just a shot to show the engraved panel lines, nice and crisp.  Should take an pin wash quite nicely, if I ever can be arsed :P

  Bought these decals from Hannants as I was going to use them on my F-16XL as an "what-if" kind thing.  I might still do that now that I think about it, I like these decals, not too showy and it's got a scantly clad lady on it too, so it beats a man in a dodgy stetson hat.  Still thinking of using the summer one for the F-16XL and the winter one for the F-16.  Well I've got a few models on the go atm so I will not be starting this one any time soon.  I might buy a few of these and see what I can bodge up. :)

  Peace!

  Dazz

WiP 2 - Revell 1/144 F-18D and CF-188A

  Well I done some work on the two Hornets, I'll post up what I have done.  First I must point out something, while looking at the pictures of the plane I am making I was shown that the antennae where wrong (by Jessica from Britmodeller.com, so I decided to see if anything else was wrong that my eye could spot.  I found something that I wasn't expecting, first a picture of the real plane.

Right, first I must apologise for the quality of the picture.  This was the only picture I could find without any obvious copyright issues.  Airliners.net has some great pictures of what I am about to post.  If you take a look where the AIM-7 Sparrow recesses are you will notice they are flat and ready to receive a new Sparrow, should the need arise.  Now onto the kit part.

Notice the error?  I believe these are little "adaptors" for the TILAD pod and whatever the other thing is for the F-18D, I am sure they have a proper name but I don't know it, so it's now known as a "pod adaptor" by me.   So anyhows, I had to cut these down and sand them a bit.  Really I would of preferred to use some needle files to make and curved indentation but I do not own any yet, so I had to make do with what I had.  Onto the more fun parts.

As promised the picture of the cockpit, now that I got my DSLR back.  I'm kinda disappointed there wasn't more detail in the cockpit, but I am also relieved as this is my first one and wanted to be broken in gently.  I like what I have done here, not sure if any of this will be seen once the canopy is on tho.

Heres the F-18D with the flaps/slats/folded wings and the rudders.  I wasn't too sure on what side the rudders go when the plane is powered down as I have seen so many pictures of them in different poses so I just took a gamble and put them this way.  The slats and flaps look off, likes theres a massive gap inbetween them and the wings. I am hoping it's just a trick of the light and glue.  The folded wings look sweet tho, not too sure if I am going to stick anything on them or not.

The CF-18A all masked up, this is before all the filling and priming.  Didn't have any issues with it, but I am thinking of cutting the areials off before I put the decals on.  I'm predicting some problems there.

CF-18A after she has been primed.  Just noticed that nose cone needs looking into, well there is a few things that I need to sort out on this one after priming.  The next picture will show you what I mean.

I didn't sand down the filled in bits for the plyons or the joins too well.  Thats the point of priming I guess, so you can spot the cock ups in great big detail.  If you look closely you'll see the sparrow recesses and how I "bodged" them.  It's not perfect, but it will do me for the time being.  Also trimmed up the launch rails on the wing tips because this bird is not going to be armed.

And here is the F-18D with all of her resin parts primed, not that I see her in this light she doesn't look bad at all.  Come out better than I thought it would.  Those little stake things next to the rear canopy (or where it will be) look massive to me, not much I can do aout them now.

  And a different angle, I like the looks of this one looks like something out of a sci-fi show like this.  Well the wing tips look cool to me worth the efftot thus far.  Might buy these little wing things again for the other models I got.  I got a few bits to sand down and sort out on this bird yet, but she is getting there.  Gotta decide what load out I am going to put on her.  The little resin cockpit/canopy backer thing needed to be filled in and sanded down as well. Should start painting her next week sometime.  Decided I am going to buy the little carrier deck that Retrowings sell also.  They are getting alot of business from me of late.

  Peace!

  Dazz

New Project Revell 1/144 F-18C and F-18D Wild Weasel

  So I stared these two while I was waiting for the Puma's primer to dry.  I was having a lot of fun with these two so I continued and left the Puma to it's own devices.  Anyhow on to the pictures.

   Here we have the usual Revell box art, I likes this one, still trying to work out what plane is on fire to the right of the box.  The box artwork for the CF-18C and the schemes can be found here....

   This is one scheme that I will not be using for this model, I have bought a second one, so I will be making this version when I build that one. :)

   Technically this is two schemes in one, as there is different "tiger" stripes before and after 2009.  I am still trying to work out if this is a Tigermeet scheme or not, and now that I think about it, I dont ever recall the US Marines ever going to a Tigermeet.  I could be completely wrong, but I personally have never seen/remember it.

  The sprue shot... (bowchica-bow wow!)... both models have the same sprues so I am not going to post two pictures of the same thing.  On to the fun part of this build.

   I bought this Retrowings cockpit upgrade set thing to go with the F-18D when I realised that during the fun job of cleaning them, that there will be parts left over for the single seater, aka the F-18C.  So I am getting two models upgraded for the price of one... RESULT! :)  The two parts in the middle with the long pole things threw me off a little bit.  I thought the pole things where just spare resin for the moulding process.  Turns out when I was researching cockpit colours that they are infact the pump/jacks that open the canopy.  Who'da thunkit?!

 And the control surface upgrade for the F-18, this one will be going on the F-18D.  A fair bit to clean up but not too much to make me cry.  The only issue will be the flaps making sure I do not cut too much off when cleaning up.

  So I marked off what needed to be cut from the F-18D on the model, quite a fair chunk of it by the looks of it eh??  Was fun cutting it all off, I only cut off as much as I dared and sanded down the rest as I didn't wanna screw up the whole thing.  This is the first time I have ever used resin or cut a model, so I am going to go slow with this.

  Here we have the F-18D on the left with all of her wings hacked off and on the right is the CF-18C untouched.  I have used the canopy spines from the cockpit kits here as I want the canopys to be open.  I hope I can pull this one off without screwing it up.

  The two offices side by side, not really much to see but showning what they look like.  The canopy colours are kinda boring, either black or grey.  But easy to paint so not too bad I guess.  Not much else to say really, wonder what stuff they have where the second seat would be??  HHmm...

  And finally we have all of the Retrowings cockpit put together and painted.  You can also see two leadshots to stop her being a tail sitter.  I doubt she will be but I would rather not find out the hard way.  I like that back seaters cockpit, looks the part.  The Pilots instrument panel has been stuck onto the fuselage already, you'll see that at a later date when the halfs are married up.  Not much else to report apart from what I have done on the models I have liked, will be buying more of Retrowings' stuff in the future.

  Peace!

  Dazz

WiP-ish Revell 1/144 Puma SA330

  Not much done to this model, my mum thought it would be a good idea to put all of her magazines ontop of where I keep my models, and I've spent most of my time, trying to fix the damage.  She's all primed now, just think I will leave this until I do my Tornado GR.1's and paint them all at the same time.

 
  PEACE!

  Dazz

New Purchase - Retrowings (OzMods) BAe Hawk T1 1/144 and Retrowings Hawks in Worldwide Service decal sheet.

  I couldn't resist buying this the other day when I ordered some more resin parts for the other models I own (most cockpits tbh).  So I purchased this, I loved the Hawk Mk.127 that I built earlier in the year I decided to build one in the scale I am now starting to prefer.  Onto the pictures and a little about each one.

 here is the box for it, nothing fancy and nothing to write home about.  Clearly says on the box that the model was manufactured by OzMods (still gotta buy some bits from them but the shipping is really putting me off).  I think the Hawk on the picture is from Indonesia, I might go for that version it's a tooled up little Hawk with the 30mm Aden Cannon, two Sidewinders (assuming it's the same the other side) and what I think is an Mk.84 bomb.  I got a few of those weapons in my stash (mostly from the F-18E) so I might use that.

   Once again nothing to write home about, the parts look to be okay.  I know I will have a fair bit of work to do with this model.  But that's part of the fun with this one, am really looking forward to this one. 

  I am so glad that the main wing is one part, makes my life easier as I was worried about fitting them both and getting the right stance for some reason.  Also glad that the wing has the little stake things in it already.  I hated doing them for the Hawk 127.

  Here is the decal sheet that Retrowings released to go with the Hawk model, it's got 10 different planes from around the world which is a bonus incase I wanna do an unusual country choice or an what-if.  Also good to have. :)

  The first page, I am loving the way this is set out.  I've always had a thing for technical drawings like this, was always good at school with these kinda drawings and I could understand them quicker than most in my class.  Anyhow... I love the RSAF colours for some reason, probably because its the same colours as the Tonkas have... I dunno...  The only problem with this sheet is that you can see the Hawks Mk. 53, 65, 109, 209 as well as other marks.  I can only do the 53's and 65's as thats all the T1 was.  I wonder if anyone will do a conversion set for this model in the future??

   First thing that gets me about this page is there is a ROKAF plane in the bottom right.  I never knew that the South Koreans had the Hawk.  But now that I do know that I have had an idea, as I wont be using the decals for that plane as it's a Mk 63 and has a different nose to the T1, I was thinking of buying the Revell 1/144 F-15E Strike Eagle which has all of it's decals in tiger stripes and replacing them with the ROKAF ones as they do have the F-15E.... Okay they have the F-15K Slam Eagle (cool name!) which for all purposes IS and F-15 just different internals.  Not a bad idea I thinks, depends if the stencils are in the tiger stripes too.

  What decal sheet wouldn't be complete with the top/bottom views of all the planes.  I never noticed how much the wings differ from the Mk.63, 109 and 209.  Stuff like that fascinates me... geeky I know but you had your warning in my first post. :P

  All of the decals, I have two problems with this sheet, first one being the lack of stencils for the planes.  I wouldn't of minded paying extra to have them included in the sheet.  They are shown on the diagrams so why not?  The other problem is the fact that the US Navys not on there... they are the biggest operator of the Hawk... Well they call it the Goshawk but it's still a bloody Hawk, just Navy-ised.  Still thinking of the Indonesia decals...

  Peace!

  Dazz

WiP - 1 : Academy 1/144 MiG-29

 
  I have managed to get a little further with the Fulcrum, managed to get the primer coat on the first colour for the camo.  Not much else, so here's the pictures.

  The underside first up, now this grey is a very thing coat put on using the Airbrush that Nat bought me for my birthday (cleaning it is a bitch...) and I love how it's turned out to be pre-shaded sorta, gives it a dirty look.  So I am gonna keep it like this.  I need to mask up the plane for the other two colours, which will be a bastard but I will live I guess :P

   That bloody nose looks horrible... shame really as the rest of the plane looks spot on... except for the engines of course.

 
  Finally the other side, once again I will apologise for the lack of postage and content.  I'm hoping to get back into my modelling now that winter is approaching fast.  Still not too sure if I wanna put any weapons on this or not.  I'll think about it.

  Peace!

  Dazz

WiP -1 : Minicraft B-17G Flying Fortress 1/144

  Well I have done a little work on this one today, not much as I was washing resin parts... oh the fun!  But here's what I have done.

   Here's the top half, the top fusleage has been glued together and the engine nacells have been glued on now.  As far as I am concerned this one is now ready for priming. :)

    And here is the underside, now that I think about it, this model isn't ready for priming as I have to sort out that hole where the ball turret should be.  I had to remove the fitting and the bump for the ball turret as the plane I am planing on making does not have a ball turret at all. Not much done I admit, but it's something I guess.

  Peace!

  Dazz

WiP-1 : Revell 1/72 Focke-Wulf TL Jaeger "Flitzer"

  Well after the MiG incident I am determined to get a model finished before it gets chucked or eaten by the dog (seriously!).  So I done some work on the Flitzer, this plane was a small one when you compare it to other WWII fighters.  I'm not too sure what colours to paint it, as technically I can paint it in anything and it wont be wrong as this plane never existed.  Not sure if I wanna try mottle'ling (is that even a word?!) it or not.

   Got the wings done and the tailbooms.  Last plane I made with Tailbooms was an P-61 Blackwidow, wish I still had model.  Was a cool little thing.  I superglued the wings on in the hope that the glue would act as an filler for the wings.  It kinda worked.  I need to use some filler on this tho.  No bigger, just trying to cut a corner.

   And the other side, I do get the impression that this plane would of been a mean little bastard had it ever reached production.  I guess it's good that it never was given that chance...

  And the wheel bays, this is the colour that Revell suggest... not too sure myself, but meh it's a colour that works.  I need to "dirty" it up a bit and I have some new toys for that, just gotta work out how to use them I guess.  More to come later on.

  Peace!

  Dazz

Abandoned project Revell 1/144 MiG 1.44

  I hate to say this one as I had just finally sorted out the canards on this plane, but I have gotta abandon this project due to my old man throwing some parts to it away.  I am not happy with him because of it, because I was really looking forward to painting this one up.  Well all I have lost is the intake trunking, I may be able to scratch build a new one, I'll have to see.  Heres the pictures of where I was up to.

   Well here she is all primed and ready to go finally.  Love the lines of this plane.

  I know those canards are not perfect, but I am bloody happy with what I have done here.  Even the re-scribing has impressed me.  I really wanted to finish this model too... had such a cool paint job planned for it as well. :(

  Peace!

  Dazz

Still not doing much...

  Hello one and all,

  Right first up I have got to apologise for my lack of postage.  As we get closer to Christmas, I will get less time to do the things I like to do.  I hate Christmas tbh, not because I'm a scrouge or anything, but for the simple reason that in my job (in a Supermarket) you get to see how much of a prick people can act as you get closer to Christmas.  I once had a man say to me that I personally, had ruined his Christmas for his family as we had no gravy... well it was 10 minutes before we closed on Christmas Eve... what did he suspect??  A fully stocked store??!!  Then theres the people who complain that the store is closed for Christmas Day and Boxing Day... "Where are we going to get our bread from?" I dunno... the freezer maybe?  The bread bin?  Seriously, get a life you sad gits!

  Anyhow... also one of the main reasons I haven't been doing any modeling for a while is because I have been playing this for the last two months...

  Now I am not too sure where it sits either being a Sim or an Arcade game... I'll go with an Sim because all the tanks have their weak spots, like the rear, bellies and tops for example.  It's also made by people who actually know what they are talking about and haven't just made the Panther/Tiger the most powerful tanks in the game.  Because despite what their reputations they did have flaws... well I'm not too sure on the Panther but the Tiger did.  It's also shown me a few tanks that I never knew existed either.    It's also inspired me to make a few tanks as well... maybe later on.  Also one thing that I think is really cool is that every time I have seen a PR video or some kind of event for them, it's been at a museum obviously a tank one.  But I have seen some at the IWM in london which is a great place to visit, as well as Duxford and from what I am told Hendon.  Biggest tank I have is a Panzer III/IV never knew it exsited but it does.  Cool little fast thing it is :)

  I hope to get some modelling done soon.  I've started on the MiG1.44 and the MiG29.  The Puma is done waiting painting (when I get the Tornado GR1's done). :)

  Peace!

  Dazz