A cautionary tale - by 'Sanguin' - " for a modeller the quest for knowledge can become self-defeating"

 

Sadly no longer with us, this is a cautionary tale from 'Sanguin' on BM. Probably too late for me. Regular visitors here will know that my build/completion rate fell off a cliff last year..mostly due to books and 'research'. This year I'm not buying (or writing) books and trying to build some kits instead..

" ...Books can be very helpful and informative, but may also be counter-productive. The following tale is true, the folly of a man who began with Airfix in the 1950s and probably has never properly grown up. Personally I began to be interested in a theme of building kits of Swedish aviation in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Before that it was random Airfix/Matchbox/Frog etc. In Britain I was a minority of a minority of a minority. Magazines sometimes covered the Draken. Lansen and later the Viggen but little else. Correspondence with Swedish people was by post and I used something called 'International Reply Coupons' to pay for their return postage so they would write back to me. I rarely ever got a response, not even to polite requests for information from the Air attache of the Swedish Embassy in London. This was along time ago.... Heller made kits of four SAAB aircraft but that was about it. An Airfix Draken that was rather crude. A Matchbox J29. Malformed Canberras, Catalinas, C-47s., the odd Junkers and a vacform or two. It was only through IPMS UK and Ted Burnett that we later formed the Swedish Airforce Special Interest Group and gained both a membership and a degree of respectability.

I write this as a warning. When you know little, you have fewer options to attain authenticity or realism or whatever you seek by making a decent replica. The quest for making the best can become self defeating. Over the years my hobby switched from making a few models, mainly fairly mediocre but some were good enough for a club stand, to amassing a collection of kits and books.

Before the internet and websites it was just magazines and a limited range of books that were our main sources of information. As publishers sought authors who could plough the soil of history to turn up the stories that were unknown to us, we enjoyed discovering the range of things that we could replicate expand beyond our wildest dreams. There were books with decent illustrations, better paper and much more information, histories of airfields, squadrons, aircraft in their many versions, colour schemes and markings and covering a huge range of aviation.

Suddenly my obsession (which it was in many ways) with things Swedish was diluted with learning about Air-Sea Rescue from Hawkinge in Kent, then 500 (County of Kent) Squadron, then the test/development aircraft flown at Farnborough/ Boscombe Down and so it went on.....the development of the Spitfire, captured aircraft in enemy markings, personal aircraft flown by senior officers, aviation oddities. I had a large and expanding library, a loft full of kits to match and neither the time nor inclination to build anything because I wasn't that good anymore. My standards were reduced by cataracts, dodgy vision in general, a chronic lack of time and a fear of having a lot more knowledge than skill. Even retirement increased my book collection but local community stuff replaced my meagre attempts at finishing builds.

This is a confessional, really. And not a proud one either. My lungs are seriously damaged by ciggies and pneumonia and my life expectancy is now very short. So in the last year I have sold it all. There is no way I could leave that lot for my wife to sort and get rid of. Books, kits, decals, resin and white metal, the whole lot. I sold it all (well, there are a few kits stashed away, either part-built or just of interest to me, less than 20.....honest). Had I built all that I had stashed away then we would have had to live in the garden shed. It was ridiculous.

So books are a useful addition to your knowledge, but they can become a diversion, an opportunity to vastly expand your knowledge but possibly at the expense of actually building models. Like everything in this life, you have to control what you do and 'moderation in all things' is perhaps the maxim to follow. Had I stayed with just the Swedish stuff, I could have binned all of my model collection a few years back and started again on more modern (but not always better) Swedish kits that have appeared and probably spent more money on beer and family and friends. This confessional may have bored many of you, amused a few and perhaps reflected something of the obsession that we have all had in differing degrees but it is how my relaxing hobby turned into something more. It may be that for some of us a surfeit of knowledge is a dangerous thing..."  

RIP John

AZ Model Bf 109 V-13/14 in 72nd

My second completion of 2025  - a straight forward build of the Emil prototypes from the AZ kit as flown by Udet at Dubendorf during 1937. A little disappointing that AZ do not provide a 'new' cowl piece aside from the large intake - the modeller has to do all the work here, filling, sanding and filing those gun troughs into a nice smooth part. Some additional cooling slots need to be drilled too, especially the one aft of the intake on the port side. The only other issue is the poor fit of the canopy which needs some work to achieve a neat fit. On the plus side the decals worked flawlessly. I used BMW red from a can for the finish..who knows if it is the 'right' shade - at least its not blue as is sometimes suggested. 

 Photo of the V-14 scanned from the Van Ishoven archive. Click to view full screen.

Fokker E.V/D.VIII - Roden 1:72nd

 

First completed build of 2025 - a Roden 1/72 Fokker D. VIII. Not an easy kit due to the multiple small struts (12), shallow locating points and horrible lozenge camo decals, which either disintegrate when coming off the backing paper or dissolve if cement goes anywhere near them ..or both. I gather this is par for the course with early Roden stuff. ..kit no. 004!. I did manage to get them on after a fashion but had to do lots of touching-up. The 'tulip petals' on the cowl were simply cobbled together from scrap decals, mostly German crosses as it happens with nicely angled pieces of black and white decal. Really this should have ended up in the bin on a number of occasions ..but I persevered and in the end was determined that I was going to post some pictures here.

According to the Windsock book on the type, the type had the usual Fokker metal tube frame with canvas stretched over it, except around the engine where it was covered with metal panels. The cockpit area had a varnished plywood floor and sides, with a canvas "rear bulkhead" behind the seat. Apparently the bottom end of the control column actually stuck out of the underside of the fuselage with the control cables attached to it, but Roden do not show that. The build looked tricky enough as it was.

The various locating holes all need drilling out  - some were supposed to take two struts!  But when the lozenge decals have been applied you then need to find and re-open the locating holes for the struts - try doing that without damaging those super-fragile decals. The decals are unfortunately so poor that just about any cement will attack and dissolve them even with a coat of acrylic varnish over them.. 

Best way to attach the wing I found, was to turn everything upside down, having cemented the struts into the fuselage. All struts are separate parts. I did not use any superglue, but applied tube cement and waited a bit for it to go tacky before positioning everything.

In 1918 the German authorities changed the way they ordered aircraft and in January (or perhaps February according to some sources) the first of a series of competitive trials took place at the Adlershof airfield at Johannisthal near Berlin. Around 27 aircraft were submitted for testing from 10 manufacturers, the Fokker V11 prototype was chosen and entered service as the D.VII ( though small orders were also placed for the Fokker D.VI). In May/June a second competition was held with perhaps 37 planes from 12 manufacturers, though I should perhaps point out that quite a few were either slightly modified existing types, or the same type with different engines. Of the 10 or so aircraft entered by Fokker, the parasol winged V.26 powered by a 110hp Oberursel engine was adjudged the winner due to a combination of speed, climb and handling, and orders were placed for 100 as the Fokker E.V, followed by a later order for a further 200. Orders were incidentally also placed for the Pfalz D.XII, perhaps as a back up. Deliveries started in late July and Jasta 6 of the Richtofen Geschwader received their first planes by August 5th, but then on August 16th and 19th two of their planes crashed due to wing failure and production was halted pending investigation. Fokker claimed the problem lay with the official insistence on using a strengthened rear spar which was breaking rather than flexing under load, but the enquiry thought that, as with the earlier Dr.I it was actually down to a combination of shoddy manufacture and sub-standard components. Fokker was lucky not to end up in jail, but after agreeing to recall all the E.V and fit them with a redesigned wing he was allowed to start again on September 24th 1918, by which time it had been decided to use a "D" designation for all fighters so it became the D.VIII. It is unclear exactly how many D.VIII were produced, and indeed how many were actually E.V with the new wing. Sources vary and I have seen the figure of 381 quoted, but the Windsock book lists a total of 289 accepted by the air force. though post war pictures of the factory show lots of D.VIII lying around, and it is thought that maybe only between 60 and 80 actually reached front line squadrons. (text by Peter Booth) 

 After the war a few entered service with the Dutch and Polish air forces whilst others were flown by the US Army Air Corps and for civilian use in Italy. The kit comes with 4 options - one Japanese, one Polish and two German. The box art shows Loewenhardt's machine, supposedly of Jasta 11 but the markings (black and white striped tailplane) are typical of Jasta 6.

I'm getting a bit of a taste for these tiny Roden kits - the sense of accomplishment when/if you manage to complete the kit is certainly enhanced compared to the usual single-seat fighter build and the finished model (smaller than some of Callum's 1:144 stuff) certainly received some nice comments when put on the table at our February model club night which was nice!

 

Hornby Visitor Centre 'Wonder Works' Airfix Model Show, 18 January 2025

 

Well the Bolton IPMS show is usually the first show of the year. In 2025 it wasn't. On Saturday we drove the 25 or so miles up to Hornby HQ and the 'Airfix' Visitor Centre (now 'rebranded' 'The Wonder Works') for their first ever model show and the first show of 2025. There were five or six clubs in attendance, including East Kent, Faversham, Medway, Gravesham and Medway Veterans,with free tea and coffee for those displaying their models and food at 50% discount! The place was packed. In fact space was at a premium with only a couple of tables allocated to each club which made for a rather cluttered display - there were ten members of our club vying for room alone! At one point every table in the Hornby cafe was occupied. Perhaps not surprisingly there were a few nice Airfix builds on show, including the 48th scale  Buccaneer, Gannet, Bulldog and Blenheim and their large 72nd scale Vulcan. We learnt too incidentally that the new-tool Lysander had just arrived in the warehouse next door - but noted that it was not yet in the shop - pre-orders and sales outlets first apparently. Here's a few of the tables/models that caught my eye..

a wide view of our two tables  - Simon's USS Texas yet to make an appearance, although his big Vulcan is there at the far end. A better view of that down below...(stay tuned for more pics to be added..)

below, a general view of Medway's tables with Martin's builds closest to the camera and Bill's Airfix post-war RAF builds including Harriers, Buccaneers, the Meteor and Hunter. Jonty's 72nd Airfix Spitfires in front.

Andy's Airfix Bulldog looking incredibly neat...

Impressively displayed Airfix 72nd Vulcan on the Gravesham club table. One way of showing off the huge missile recessed in the bomb bay..

A close-up of Bill's 72nd Harriers

Martin's 'Star Wars' fighter thingy in Luftwaffe colours caught the eye...

This Fa 223 Drache was neatly done -not sure of the kit, probably Special Hobby. Props attached with mini-magnets. Model secured to the base with mini-magnets. Ingenious!

David from Gravesham models WWI . Not a single triplane on display this time though. See Welling show report 2023 elsewhere here.

Mac's Italeri 1:9th scale Harley OOB. 

A view of one wall of the Airfix/Hornby shop at their Visitor Centre in Margate, Kent!

Simon's 72nd Airfix Vulcan (old tool) and his USS Texas left. Dale and David's Dominie 'before and after' as seen on the Manston fire dump from the Airfix Vintage Classic range..

East Kent Scale Modellers - first club night of 2025

 

..first meet of the year coincides with the date of the Airfix 2025 range launch. Of course, as Luke has gone to Revell - and still no sign at our meets of his replacement - he was not present to give us our usual Airfix' briefing' but generally people were pretty happy with what was announced - obviously the Jaguar was an 'open' secret but the Stalwart was a surprise, but most seem to have already got a Spitfire twin-seater in their collections courtesy of Brigade Models. As usual there were some great models on the table for tonight's meet...

Rod's Airfix Javelin and Will's 32nd Hasegawa 79th FG P-47

Andy's 72nd Sword F.1

Ben's 24 scale Trumpeter Hurricane. Purchased at Telford. Airbrushed freehand, markings painted with masks.

Bob's Trumpeter Fulmar in 48th 

Ben's Airfix Buccaneer in 48th 

David's Academy F-4

Stu's Academy Thunderjet in 72nd and Dick's Kinetic Harrier..

Henry's Airfix 48th Anson

'Syrian Veterans'- Paulus Victor decals. Syrian Arab Air Force MiG 21bis (1)

 

With the fall of the Assad regime the Syrian Arab Air Force is on the verge of extinction. My interest in SyAAF MiGs was piqued back in 2017 when the 'Russia Today' news channel filed a report from Hama air base. Now that interest has resulted in my tracking down a copy of the first 'Paulus Victor' decal sheet in 1:72nd, issued  back in 2017 as it happens, and now largely sold out.  Time to dig out the Zvezda MiG 21bis kit for my first project of 2025.

The Syrian civil war seemed to have virtually ended between then and late November 2024, but outside of the large towns there were always areas of the country held by 'rebels' and effectively outside of Assad's control. But now, no doubt taking advantage of Russia's weakness and events elsewhere, Islamist insurgents - what the Russians used to refer to as 'terrorists' and now call the 'armed opposition' - advanced on Homs taking Hama air base to threaten Damascus in a rapid two-week offensive. Assad was forced to flee the country and claim asylum in Moscow. Russian influence in the region has suffered a huge setback - having invested huge resources in building up bases, especially the air force base at Latakia. Some recent photos of Hama air base have appeared on various on-line news feeds - along with several pictures of bombed-up MiG 21s that look like they may have been taken back in 2015-2017. Most of the wrecked MiGs that feature in recent pictures look very much as though they were 'hangar 'queens' - sometimes propped up on piles of old tyres and missing key parts. The MiGs were delivered to Syria during the early 1980s - their airframes well past their useful lives were refurbished locally. This decal sheet is actually sold out and OOP in 1:72nd scale although the 48th scale sheet is still available. I managed to source a sheet from PV's preferred seller in Kiev, Ukraine and it arrived today, Christmas Eve. 

The Paulus Victor decal package is superb with fold-out artworks and reference photos enclosed in a nicely printed heavy-card folder. There is a detailed painting guide for each of the featured aircraft and a page describing how to construct an authentic-looking Syrian airfield base. 

How to use Ammo rigging