Spitfire HF Mk VI

Finished a ‘simple build’ today of the 1:72 scale AZ Model Spitfire HF Mk VI which was one of the bargain kits I picked up at last Sunday’s show. I was in need of something simple to pass the time while I considered what after market bits, if any, to acquire for a Lancaster I also have on the workbench. 

This is the very unusual, long winged high altitude Spitfire, which I finished in the colours of P/O C.B.Brown’s aircraft of 616 Squadron, RAF Kingscliffe, May 1942. 

In building this kit, I made 3 frustrating mistakes … 

1. Attempting to hand paint acrylics in a heatwave!

2. Not researching a better kit to meet my ‘simple build’ criteria, as this was really quite painful!

3. Choosing to buy this kit in the first place!

Beaufighter TF.10

After a couple of whirlwind days modelling, my 1:72 scale Beaufighter TF.10 is just about ready for tomorrow’s Somerset show. 

This is the Beaufighter which flew with No.45 Squadron, RAF Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, during “Operation Firedog”, late May to early December 1949. 

Its role was to provide ground support to the British and Commonwealth forces engaged in a guerrilla war with the communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army. 

This Airfix kit is a dream to build, with every part fitting beautifully and being the new moulding, there was only minimal need for filling and sanding. My only complaint would be the tyres, which I should really have taken more time over to fill the rather obvious centre seams and add some tread, but I’m out of time now so may revisit them another time. 

Type 45 Destroyer

Day 9 of my Airfix 1:350 Type 45 Destroyer build and it’s complete 🎉

From a distance I’m really happy with this build.   It’s been great fun and challenging to construct, which I guess that’s what this hobby is all about. 

My attempts to fill some of the gaping joints were of mixed success and as these are most visible under the microscopic view of closeup photography, I’ve left these shots on the cutting room floor! 

I’ve finished this Type 45 air defence destroyer in the colours of HMS Dragon D35, one of the most advanced warships in the world and the star of the James Bond film No Time To Die! 

B-24 Liberator & Ju88

My 1:144 scale B-24 Liberator & Ju88 kits are built for another Dunkeswell diorama.

This one will be set on  4th September 1943 when six Ju-88 of 13/KG40 intercepted VB-103’s Lt James H Alexander’s B-24 ‘G’ B-7 “Impatient Virgin” off the Spanish coast. 

B-24 Liberator v Ju-88 diorama at Dunkeswell 

4th September 1943

VPB103: Lt. James H Alexander intercepted by 6 Ju-88s. 

During an antisubmarine patrol from Dunkeswell, Lt James H Alexander and crew were intercepted by six Ju-88 C fighters over the Bay of Biscay. During the attack, Alexander’s gunners shot down one of the Ju-88s flown by Lt Gerhard Blankenberg and crippled three others. His B-24 Liberator, numbered B-17 “G” and named Impatient Virgin was, however, damaged and unable to return to Dunkeswell. With flying instruments rendered inoperative and her four engines badly damaged, despite a painful head wound, Alexander effected a safe landing at sea.

Successfully abandoning the aircraft, he and his crew rode out a severe storm in a rubber life raft for 36 hours before being rescued by a passing Spanish fishing vessel. 

After a month recuperating, they were all repatriated back to England.

Lt James H Alexander was awarded the Navy Cross, his co-pilot and navigator the Distinguished Flying Cross and his crew the Air Medal. 

Sadly, on 3rd December 1943, Alexander, like so many of his fellow airmen, was to die in a training accident, at the age of just 23 years old.  

He has a cenotaph in Memorial Park Cemetery, Sioux City, USA

Here's perhaps my most unusual model build to date. It’s Modelcollect’s 1:72 scale WW2 Germany V1 Missile Railway Car kit which some may recall, I picked up earlier this year, at the SW Model Show at Bovington. 

The parts on the sprue bore little relation to those in the instructions; with the bogies being 3 wheeled not 2 and having enough parts left over to build a strange looking finned missile and two launching platforms! Despite this oddity, it was a fun and quite a refined kit to build. The detail, for instance, in the flying bomb, is far superior to that produced by Airfix some years back. The Airfix V1 was then included in a dogfight double kit with a Meteor … I’m still somewhat bitter to this day that the second full model in that kit was one which came on a sprue of only 5 parts! 

This V1 Missile Railway Car is also a bit of a crazy model in itself, having never actually existed. I would be surprised, however, if it wasn’t something that would have been considered at the time to provide the V1 with mobility. Being a flying bomb rather than a missile, the V1 needed a long ski ramp to launch making them relatively easy to locate and destroy. The V2 rocket, meanwhile, was very mobile … but that’s a story for another build 😉

As this never existed, I felt free to go with my own camouflage and so assuming the idea was not to be easily found, I went with some more of that Normandy 1944 scheme. I so enjoyed using this on the 1:35 Panther that I thought I’d try scaling it down to 1:72, something I found quite a bit more challenging.

Bofors 40mm Anti Aircraft Gun

I’m on a bit of a roll today! I finally finished this 1:35 scale Italeri Bofors 40mm Anti Aircraft Gun which I’ve had under construction since I started it in one of our club meetings back in February! 

The figures in this 2007 released kit are very simply moulded and strangely dressed like US Marines rather than typical WW2 Tommies. Interestingly the US did use the Bofors during the war, so I’ve stuck with it and created something in line with Italeri’s box art.

Panzer V Panther Ausf A

I was given this Tamiya Panzer V Panther Ausf A as a birthday gift over a year ago, but you know how it is, when you have an extensive stash, the forward looking build calendar is full for some considerable time!

This is only my second venture into 1:35 scale AFVs, and although a 1960s mould, was great fun to build. I’ve also tried out a number of new weathering techniques, something which I’m discovering has many new opportunities in this scale. 

I’ve completed this Panther in the colours of a tank which may have served with the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich during the 1944 Normandy campaign and a larger version of the 1:72 ‘mini me’ tanks I built for my Pegasus Bridge epic last year. I hope you like it