Zvezda new tool 1:72nd scale Bf 109 F-2 Friedrich (2)

..nicely detailed parts just snap together and/or plug in....no glue required ..and no gaps either. Is this the end of modelling as we know it ?  Shame the supercharger intake is solid and the pitot tube attached to the port wing simply won't survive the handling and painting stages. Once the lower wing insert is clipped on, construction proceeds with the cockpit. The various detailed parts - including a three-part pilot figure - just plug into the top of the wings and the fuselage halves then clip onto the wing around the cockpit....however the wings are just solid parts and there is no provision for deploying flaps/slats or ailerons at all... I think if building this again I would at least cut out the radiator flaps which are invariably down when the aircraft is on the ground ...but those are the only criticisms...

new tool 1:72nd Airfix P-51D Mustang- first one finished

This is " Lollipoop II " a 100 FS machine of the 332nd FG flown by Lt. Spurgeon Ellington out of Ramitelli, Italy in late 1944. Click on the images to get in close...

Difficult to go to far wrong with a nice new tool Mustang! Careful with the canopy though as it is definitely the weak point of the model in my opinion, that is, when you've finished wrestling with the wing fit. It is very easy to spoil the model by marking the clear part of the hood when you remove it from the sprue and it still looks rather thick when attached to the `solid’ canopy rail. In addition the windscreen on my model was very tight and hard to fit to the fuselage. It might be an idea to use a spare canopy out of the spares box if you have one, but the rest of the kit is great and the dropped flaps are excellent.  The drop tanks are the only other 'weak' point - they lack the very characteristic 'seam'. The decals are went on perfectly, although I didn't use the yellow bands or the red trim, preferring to mask and paint. I still have some small stencils to put on but otherwise this one is finished. Tamiya quality at half the price. Now to start on the 'starter set' of this kit with RAF markings for 112 Squadron complete with `sharks mouth’. 

Zvezda new tool 1:72 Bf 109 Friedrich

..retailing for £7.50 in the UK this is the neat new-tool Friedrich from Zvezda. Designed like their Yak-3 - which is an excellent little kit- to be a 'snap-together' easy build, parts seem to be well detailed.

From AaCee26 on britmodeller.com

"...I got mine yesterday. Excellent little kit! Very easy and quick to build. I compared it with the FineMolds kit and in my opinion Zvezda is even better! Look for example the cowling piano hinge! Worst pitfalls of the FM have been avoided (narrow oil tank after the prop and a little low fuselage on wing trailing edge) so the minor issues with Zvezda are easy to accept (a couple of panel lines missing on top of the wings, closed air intake). If only flaps have been dropped and there would be other sub-types available..."

photos by 'neurodancerus' via flickr' hot-links available to google bloggers

new tool Airfix P-51 D Mustang, Mustangs at Duxford flying Legends 2012

Some progress on the Airfix P-51 and to conclude this post some of my mate Nico's excellent pics from this year's Flying Legends (click on the pic for a larger view). Finally got the wings on after a fair bit of fettling;  in the end I had to shave the lower wing/fuselage join at both ends (front/back) of the lower wing part to get the lower wing on. I elected to assemble the wing in its entirety and fettled at the wing root, taking care to maintain the lower wing dihedral - perhaps next time I should do it differently and attach the lower wing first. At the last count I've built five or six Airfix new tool Spits and two new tool Emils but this was the most difficult wing assembly of the Airfix new tools for me. The fuselage and cockpit parts went together perfectly though. However I was so intent on getting the wings on I completely missed fitting part 11a inside the fuselage - the detailed radiator - so now I've got a 'see-through' Mustang! I'll put it down to ham-fistedness and do it differently next time..fabulous little kit (again) though despite one or two quality control issues again. 

One suggestion for the wing fit I've read courtesy Mikeyw on britmodeller;  " The only fit issue I've had with this kit is the wing/under engine joint. I put this down to the top of the wheel well interfering with the thickness of the wing fillet. It was a simple cure by whittling down the forward half of the wing fillet's thickness by about half. It's not much but it allows the roof of the wheel well to tuck in enough to allow the extension of the wing/engine rear to sit in place rather than have to be stretched, glued and clamped. My general comment to Airfix would be to please use a plastic that cures a LITTLE harder. I really love the seperate rudder and flaps. How about setting the standard Airfix and make all the control surfaces as seperate parts ! "

Airfix Spitfire F Mk 22 - new tool 1:72 scale - first one finished

Airfix 1:72 Spitfire F. 22 photographed with the Airfix PR.XIX. The Mk. 22 is more or less finished  -just one or two stencils from the impressively large decal sheet to add and perhaps the wingtip nav lights to add although they are too thin for my usual 'coloured plastic' technique. I've cut out the elevators and added a whip aerial. Overall a nice kit - and building this was a great way to learn more about this variant - and others ; for example the wings from the MK 22 cross-kitted with the XIX will produce an early Mk 21. On the Mk 22 the bubble canopy, re-designed wing, cannon armament and larger tail surfaces are immediately evident. Battle of Britain ace, and later Boscombe Down test pilot, Tom Neil, writing in Air Enthusiast 54 wasn't a fan; " in my opinion the Spitfires 22 and 24, plus the Spiteful, were the most beautiful aircraft ever designed; with their enormous spinners, tear-drop hoods, cutaway fuselages and enlarged tails they looked absolutely right. Unfortunately I found them less attractive to fly.." The prototype Mk. 22 PK312 was first flown on 21 March 1945 and was evaluated at Boscombe Down as a ground attack fighter. "PK 312 I grew to hate - every time I took off in it something seemed to happen  - an oil leak, a hydraulic problem, gun stoppage, the engine sounding like someone shaking a bag of nails..in my opinion the aircraft was the Pygmalion awfulest Spitfire ever built.."

new tool 1:72 Airfix P-51 D Mustang is here ! Progress on the Airfix Spitfire Mk 22 (2)

..great, one of my favourite types in a nice new tool at half the price of the Tamiya kit! Detailed cockpit, poseable flaps, tread detail on the tyres, superbly rendered wheel wells etc etc. No need to struggle ever again with the Italeri and Academy P-51 Ds in this scale, performing surgery on the wings, trying to get the windscreen to fit. ..ahh, the windscreen; probably the one area where the Airfix kit falls down a little since it is moulded separately to the front coaming and was damaged in this particular kit. Nonetheless I look forward to finishing my first one soon ! Here are some sprue shots and a little bit of progress on the cockpit - yep, that bottom shot below is an Airfix cockpit!

Italeri and Academy P-51Ds on this blog


http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/more-mustangs.html
http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/ray-littge-352nd-fg-miss-helen.html
http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/urban-drew-361st-fighter-group-detroit.html

..and some progress on the new tool Airfix Spitfire Mk 22, day 6. My first one will be a natural metal finish using the kit decals, making it possible to do much of the construction prior to painting. Over on the Airfix Tribute forum one modeller finished his, painted and decalled, in an afternoon and evening! Tricky areas; fitting the cockpit, getting the wings on, fitting the undercarriage, the legs being somewhat too big for the locating holes, while the tail wheel doesn't seem to have a locating hole. I've cut out the elevators, attached a fuse-wire whip aerial, drilled out the head armour support;

Airfix Spitfire F Mk 22 - new tool 1:72 scale review

Airfix continue to release new molds faster than I can build them. I have made a start on their lovely 1:72 scale new tool Spitfire MK 22. Considered by many as the 'ultimate' Spitfire, the Mk 22 was almost the last of the RAF's Spitfires into service and one of the first RAF types postwar to feature a move from the early 1940s war-time camouflage schemes of Dark Green and Ocean Grey to a more US-style natural metal finish. Other major differences from more 'conventional' war-time Spitfires include the five-bladed prop, 'bubble' canopy ( you get two in the kit, one of which allows the canopy to be posed  open), the 'cut-down' rear fuselage, re-designed wing and the armament of four 20mm cannon. The first squadron to equip with the type was No. 607 Sqn of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force - the RauxAF becoming the biggest user of the type - see the Paul Lucas feature in  Model aircraft Monthly, April 2009 (Vol 8 issue 4)

This looks to be a lovely little kit. Personally I'm a big fan of the new look Airfix - they are at least releasing new kits on a regular basis, re-packaging if not re-tooling older ones, which makes them (along perhaps with Trumpeter, maybe Revell and Eduard..) the current standard bearers of the hobby!  Valiant, Swordfish, 24 scale Mosquito, 48th scale Lynx  (..there, got my argument in first in case you were about to start ...)



And while the fitment of the cockpit may be a little tricky, simply shave a little plastic off the  'shoulders' of the instrument panel, dry-fitting as you go. And neither have I seen any 'supposed' quality control issues with this lovely kit, see my part 4 on sprue C below..perfectly molded!

Of course there has been the usual spouting off on the forums, but at first view the detractors have very meagre pickings again - I've even read some comments on the placement of the ejector pin marks - which can merely be swiped off with some basic tools ! Personally I have little time for Airfix's critics - if they can't see that a good quality £5 'buildable' Spitfire or Hurricane or Me 109 or P-51 is not a good thing for the hobby then, well.... there were comments about the new tool Emil that conveyed the impression that the kit was virtually 'unbuildable' - comments that are frankly ridiculous and completely over the top. Got a problem with dihedral flattening out because the wing fit is pretty tight, then sand a little off the wing root, its not difficult! Funny too how the knockers (oo-errh!) and nit-pickers don't ever show any of their models - I suspect that their egos wouldn't stand it..