This is the (relatively) new 1/48 kit from Airfix – and initially I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to make it as the Defiant isn’t really a plane that has ever been on my radar (no pun intended). It always seemed to be something of a Chimaera – the love child of a Hurricane and some kind of bomber with that huge turret behind the cockpit – but as often happens, whilst making the kit I really fell for the plane. It does have that slightly ungainly quality...
When I got this enquiry from a customer in the US I was immediately intrigued. Robert wanted to commission a build from me for the family of his business partner which they all thought would make a perfect gift for their Father. Robert had seen my F4 Corsair on Etsy and liked the way I had weathered the model, so he sent the enquiry along with this photo of his business partner’s father – Ens Leo D. Linhard standing alongside his own F4U in 1951. I was immediately...
Excerpt textReally looking forward to this build – it’s a great story to tell of Flying Officer Arnold Hallas. He came from Burton and was sadly killed when he was flying Spitfire IX NH231 coded UF-A with 601 Sqn on the 30th April 1945. His is believed to be the last Spitfire lost in the European Theatre, and I jumped at the chance to help the Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum down at Manston in Kent with their display to show Arnold’s Spitfire as it was before his...
I couldn’t believe my luck when a customer in America asked me not only to build the Enola Gay B-29 for him – but to build it in 1/48th scale! I always looked at the old 1/72 scale Airfix kit as a kid and wanted to build it – but the bare metal finish and greenhouse cockpit made it an ambitious build and a step too far for me then. When I started building models again as a (more or less) adult, the kit was high on my list...
This is quite an old model from the 70s, and when you open the box its age really shows – but there is something I really love about this kit… The Kit The detail is very poor, and although I’m not one of those modellers who compares every dimension with the real aircraft and gets upset if it isn’t spot-on – as I understand it the model isn’t that accurate. That is what I love about the kit though – it is the perfect illustration of how special the...
This is a lovely Tamiya kit of the popular Mustang in 1/48th scale. It’s one of a number of Mustangs that Tamiya do (like the Spitfire, the Mustang is heavily represented by all the manufacturers) – so you have plenty of choice if you want to make one. The Kit The Tamiya kit is really solid and well thought-out – but somehow they manage to put all that ‘solidness’ inside the model – so when you look at it from the outside it just looks beautifully to scale and...
This kit is from Great Wall Hobbies, and is the only one of their kits I have built. The FW-189 is a very striking looking aircraft with a twin boom – which I really like as an aircraft format. I think my fondness is due at least in part to the fact that 2 was always my favourite Thunderbird. Yes I know it wasn’t actually twin boom, but take a look and you will hopefully see what I mean. The Kit This is a great kit – the detail...
I was really excited when I saw this kit released by Italeri. The Sunderland is one of the iconic aircraft I wanted to build, but until this point the only real option would be the old 1/72 kit from Airfix with all the attendent problems like poor fit and raised panel lines. The new tooling from Italeri looked really promising – and I would have to say it didn’t disappoint. The one thing I did really miss from the Airfix fit though was that fantastic illustration on the...
This kit from Hasegawa has one of the most beautiful box-art images I have ever seen – as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to build that model! There is something about the proportions of the FW190 with the radial engine that is just perfect. It doesn’t have the graceful beauty of a spitfire, but it just has perfect proportions and aggressive powerful lines that make it a thing of beauty. At the risk of straying from my modelling brief, I have to say Iam...
When I was a boy, this kit was my ultimate dream. I read an excellent book (which I still have) called How to Go Plastic Modelling by Chris Ellis – and on the front of the paperback he was sat at a desk painting details on one of these. It looked fantastic, and if I could have afforded to buy one I would have been a happy boy. Many years later I bought this kit not long after I started modelling again, and because it was out of...