Confessions of a Kitbasher

Continuing with this 'RAF Germany' kick, I've made a start on a 1/48th model of an early Hawker Hunter F.4. I'm using Academy's Hunter F.6 kit, which is a real 'curate's egg' - i.e. good in parts. The general quality of the kit is really very good, but it has some inaccuracies:

• tiny ejector seat
• shallow cockpit tub
• undersize wheels, particularly the nosewheel
• incorrect wing leading edges
• horizontal tail surfaces set too far aft

and although the rest of the kit is well-engineered, the design of the wing root/intake trunking area is a nightmare.

To overcome these issues, I used Aeroclub's excellent correction set, which offers solutions to the cockpit and undercarriage problems, and a bit of good old-fashioned kitbashing to wrestle the wing/fuselage join into submission. The tail surfaces and the wing leading edges were corrected using a razor saw and the 'Mk.I Eyeball'.

Among other online references I found this site very helpful.

More later - keep bashing the plastic!

Kitbasher.

I have been interested in aeroplanes for as long as I can remember (over half a century on a good day!), and have been building models of them since somewhere around the age of eight. The first model that I can remember building was purchased from King's Cycle Shop in Allenton, just south of Derby, and was the 1/72nd scale Frog kit of the Hawker Hunter (see above). It was constructed on my gran's kitchen table, and painted using the leftover 'oil' paints from my mum's 'Painting by Numbers' set. These were designed for use on the ersatz 'canvas' supplied in the set, and when applied to the impervious styrene surface, resolutely refused to dry!

I continued to purchase these Frog kits, but at around 8/6 (43p) each, they represented a huge investment for a boy whose disposable pocket-money income amounted to around 1/3 (6p) in a good week! The salvation, of course, was the emergence of Airfix. The first Airfix kit that I can remember seeing, and purchasing, was their early nondescript Spitfire, moulded in pale blue. It was less sophisticated than the Frog kits, and it came in a plastic bag instead of a shiny box, but it was only 2/- (10p), so I could buy one every two weeks! Soon the Gladiator joined the Spitfire, then more wartime aircraft, and then a series of small scale sailing vessels - the Golden Hind, the Cutty Sark and the Shannon - and then the floodgates opened! Cars, jets, biplanes, military vehicles, model railway accessories, modern warships and merchant ships, airliners, railway engines - all appearing at regular and frequent intervals on the counters of our local Woolworth's store, and all priced within the ambitions of a young boy.

Soon I had discovered Humbrol paints, including their novel new matt colours, Yeoman waterslide transfer alphabets (which were unfeasibly thick by modern standards, and needed a ten-minute soak in hot water to loosen them from their backing), and the brand new Airfix Magazine - 1/6 (7p) every month. I read books, perused articles, built models in colour schemes other than that provided, cut open cockpit canopies, attempted simple conversions . . . . . I was hooked!

After a long hiatus from this weblog, and a shorter one from the hobby, I'm back kitbashing again. I'm still turning out Spitfires for the Spitfire SIG display, but the new impetus is a club display which covers 'BRITISH ARMED FORCES IN GERMANY, 1945-1995'. In my case, of course, that means RAF Germany, and some lovely '50's and '60's jets. So far, I've done a Canberra B(I).8, a Venom FB.4, a Meteor NF.11 and a Sabre F.4, and I've a couple of Spitfires - a Mk.XIV and a Mk.24 - to add to the mix.

On the stocks at the moment are a Hunter F.4 and my latest attempt to finish a vacform - the Swift FR.5.

I'll be doing my best to post here more often - weekly is the target.

Stay tuned!

Kitbasher