Building the new-tool Airfix Junkers Ju 52

 

A few modellers have already built and/or are building the new Ju 52 just released. Here are some screen shots from Luke's video at Mach Models (video link below; great model, superbly filmed) and some pics from Jonty at IPMS East Kent. Incidentally some of Luke's work is on display at Hannants in Colindale close by the RAF museum, Hendon. 

The new Airfix Ju 52 has a good level of cockpit detail - features include rudder pedals, control yokes, the central instrument panel with throttle levers and radio equipment/sets behind the forward bulkhead. Internal 'cargo' space can be configured with Airfix-supplied oil drums and/or seating. The rear bulkheads visible  fill the space below/around the gunners' position. The internal 'corrugations' are well done and the bracing framework is also featured. Note the 'single-part' roof in the image below.

The lower fuselage and the top roof are available as single parts avoiding a central join/split and there are two large spars built into the lower section to support the wings.

Some screen shots from the Mach Models video below. Note less than 10 minutes of Luke's video are devoted to construction which appears absolutely 'painless'. 

Below; A single click on the red square to watch the full video here. 

Changes at Airfix and a look at their 1:72 Bf 109 F-4 starter kit

Following on from Luke's departure to Revell, Head of Brand at Airfix Dale Luckhurst has been pushed out (or jumped ship before being pushed) and gone to Heller. Dale has been replaced by a marketing whizz ( and former wedding bridal dress store owner allegedly) according to what you can read around the Net. Which means she knows nothing about scale modelling. Obviously the brand appears to be undertaking cost cutting measures, perhaps anticipating a sale by Hornby? Some of the planned 2026 releases also allegedly appear to have been ditched.  After my issues with their new releases (missing sprues in the Wessex box, Blenheim canopy glazing irredeemably cracked, no replacement available) my Airfix 'loyalty' is maybe now slowly starting to wane....... 

So just time to mention that the Bf 109 F (Friedrich) starter set I've just finished was really not worth the effort. Lacking in detail and finesse - as perhaps a 'starter set' requires - this 109 carries on the Airfix 'tradition' of being unable to give us a really decent small scale Bf 109. It of course builds easily enough, but looks slightly 'under-sized' to me. The box art shows a Jabo Jagd-bomber of III. /JG 77 on the Eastern Front taking out some T-34s - but the kit does not feature a bomb rack or any ordnance. As the new Gruppe had to have a Jabo-Staffel (a fighter squadron that could occasionally operate as a light bomber with a 250 kg bomb under its belly), 7. Staffel was designated to fulfill this role. The one decal option in the kit provides the markings for 7./JG 77 Staffelkapitän Wolf-dieter Huy. You also get a stand for your nearly £12 outlay, which when compared to its Eduard 'equivalent', seems a little over-priced too. A poor 3 out of 10 is my rating. Seen on the table at Shepway Military Modelling Society club night, first Monday of the month at the Hawkinge Battle of Britain Museum... 

Great War SIG at West Norfolk IPMS show

.. first post taking in the SIGs at last week's IPMS West Norfolk show. These fine 1:72 models are all the work of Mr Steve Cox. Although there were no triplanes on the table until I pointed it out. Note that Steve doesn't rig his builds - his 'philosophy' is that building model kits should be 'for fun' and rigging is not fun! Note that some of these 72nd scale models like the Friedrichshafen and Gotha bombers are vac-forms!  That doesn't sound like fun either to be honest!

Finnish B-239 Buffalo from the 'classic' Airfix 72nd kit

 

The ancient 1:72 Airfix Buffalo is a poor kit. Turning it into a Finnish machine is to be honest a bit of a pointless exercise - everything needs work. But then again, everything needs work anyway. Here I've built up the cowl - drilling out the cooling apertures and relocating the MGs to those little bulges on the top - lengthened the forward fuselage with card and putty by several mms, revamped the cockpit with an instrument panel and head/back armour and substituted the propeller for an item out of the spares box that actually looked like it might have belonged on an aeroplane! The opening canopy section had to be 'plunge-moulded' to actually get something to fit in the open position and I used decal strip for the framing. The raised detail was sanded down and a bit of rescribing undertaken - not my favourite task.The lumps of plastic that pass for exhausts on the kit were removed and replacements installed on the bottom of the cowl. The tail wheel was replaced with something from the spares box. Decals came from an old Colarado sheet. Just to make things worse I used Humbrol 24 for the yellow Eastern Front theatre markings - and it refused to dry! Still to add the pitot but this one is done..

East Kent Scale Modellers February club night (1) - Keith's Invicta Airways airliners

There were a host of superlative scale models on display at our second club night of 2026 - none more so than Keith's Invicta Airways airliners. The Valom Vickers Viking was accompanied on the table by a fantastic build of the Revell C-54/DC-4 Skymaster. Invicta Airways (later Invicta International Airlines) was based at Manston in the 1960s. Founded by Hugh Kennard, the company was a noted user of the Vickers VC.1 Viking (including registrations G-AOVF, G-ANCF, G-AHOY, G-AHPL, and G-AHOW) alongside Douglas DC-4s..

The Manston-based Invicta Airways fleet flew passenger and cargo charters between 1965 and 1968 both within the UK and to Europe and was the last British operator of the Vickers Viking, a type derived from the Wellington bomber. This particular aircraft, G-AHOY - registered to Invicta Airways during 1966 as G-AIVF - operated her final service on January 30 1968 when she flew from Liverpool to Manston. During 1968 Invicta Airways became an all-Skymaster operator.

Models built by Keith Jones

new-tool Airfix for 2026 at The Model Works show

 

January saw the second ever Airfix model show held at Airfix HQ in Margate, Kent. The show featured a table of Airfix new-tools for 2026 and participation from the local clubs, including East Kent, Gravesham and Shepway.  Here are the first views of the new Ju 52, Canberra and Jaguar T.2 on the Airfix stand including the 'new' Club Viggen kit, far left. The new Ju 52 with open doors, hatches and roof looks especially impressive - but then with a slated retail price of around £50 it certainly should be.

 

new tool 1:72nd Airfix Wessex HC. 2 build review (2) - first completion of 2026

Still minus a few stencils and small parts but here are a few views of the new-tool Airfix Wessex HC 2. It is a lovely kit, very finely detailed over 86 build stages. Unfortunately not a very pleasurable build experience, possibly to do with the fact that you have to paint/decal the model before attaching most of the parts. One or two of these crucially don't fit too well, which is a pain and one or two disappeared who knows where. And I wish Airfix would identify some of the smaller parts too - what for example are the small 'jaw' like parts that go onto the bottom of the gear legs?  I left these off until the end and they were so much easier to deal with this way. The 'folding' tail rotor and main rotor blades are great options - just rather fiddly to get in position, while the main rotor head probably needs some brass rod or similar to 'stiffen' up the construction. Needless to say masking the canopy was several hours work too and I'm still not sure whether those upper panels should be 'tinted'. Geoff Coughlan's build has them, others don't. The exhausts are just a little clunky - comprising two halves the join is difficult to eradicate at the lip so I've hidden it with some foil covers. Camo was free-handed with AK Real Colors - that's how easy these paints are to work with..

Not only are the rotor blades rather tricky to position folded, the instructions don't exactly clarify the painting and finishing of them. Note on this image (below) how the dark green upper surfaces of the blades are only facing 'outwards' on the starboard fold. The black lower sufaces are 'outwards' on the port fold.

I'll give this kit  a good 8/10 and if we get a yellow one in a forthcoming release I'll definitely add it to the collection..