Hawker Demon

Sorry it's been a while since my last post - busy with work and other stuff, meaning lots of screen time and a resulting disinclination to write blog posts!

Anyway, let's have some pics of toys, 'cos that's why you're here, right?  Readers of a nervous disposition look away now.

This battered specimen was part of the loot from COW last year.   I've always liked the Demon/Hart/Fury family of pointy biplanes.  While planning a Spanish Civil War game a few months ago I felt a need for a republican light bomber/recce biplane.  The 'correct' thing would have been a Breguet XIX.  There were also a few (three?) Hawker Fury fighters in Spain so it didn't take my fevered mind long to join the dots.  So Demon = wrong.  But then Demon = free.  Still with me?

Repair work commenced to my usual high* standards - liberal doses of blutac and glue being employed in the process.

Elegant eh?

Soon everything was perfectly* aligned.  

I managed to preserve the previous owner's impressing rigging thread.

Paint was added and markings were also painted on.  The result is clearly Republican and has the correct quantity of wings, and for a walk on part in a daft game that's good enough for me!

Carrying on across the desert

 

While I was sorting out crews for my other British Bren Carriers it seemed appropriate to do the same for this pair.  I actually painted these a couple of years ago but they remained crewless until recently.  Drivers and gunners are cut-about Airfix 8th Army figures, the back-seater is Deetail.

Japanese 70mm Infantry Guns

These tiny guns were widely used by Japanese forces for fire support.  Being too mean to buy an expensive and fragile plastic kit and too impatient to order a 3D print I decided that scratchbuilding was the way to go.  In the end I built three of them and gave one to PHW.  

The crew for this one were adapted from the Tamiya Japanese Infantry set - often to be found startlingly cheap at under £1 a figure!

The second crew are cut-about Aitfix figures, complete with sword-waving officer!

The pre-paint photos give you a better idea of the construction.  Wheels were an issue but I had a (20mm) metal kit of a WW2 German 15cm field howitzer.  The gun wheels are wider then those of the limber but I can live with that. (The third gun had wheels from another such gun).  Barrels are plastic tube, trail legs bambo skewers, everything else random bits of plastic card.

More reinforcements and a rout.

Last week I had cause to visit fellow blogger Trebian.  As usual, he entertained me with a game using his own rules.  The report of battle of Prestonpans can be found on his blog. Modesty prevents me disclosing the outcome.  Actually no it doesn’t. I put more than half of the Government army to flight.  My subtle plan of ‘f*&k it, let’s charge the b@$tards’ seemed to work rather well. 

Also, as the game took place in Northamptonshire I got a lot further south than Charles Edward!  

Here are a couple of my photos. 

The toys used were all Trebian’s 1/72 plastics - the Government infantry were all veterans of the Airfix ‘Washington’s Army’ set while the Jacobites were all more recent (Strelets?) figures. And very nice too. 

As well as raising the clans I also raised some more manpower for my 54mm WW2 project as Trebian kindly presented me with a box of his old Airfix 1/32 toys. Refurbishing flaky paint and basing is currently underway. 

Veteran Waffen SS Kompanie

 A couple of weeks ago Martin R dropped in for a game and very kindly gave me a box of his old 54mm WW2 Airfix figures.  Most have now been passed on to Russell but I was very taken with some of the figures Martin had painted many decades ago.  I managed to salvage most of the original paintwork on a company (or Kompanie) worth of SS troopers.  The extremities were a bit flaky and I also repainted the helmets but most of the paint is original, albeit with some touching up.  On seeing the revamped figures, Martin commented that his hand must have been a lot steadier in years gone by!  

Crumbling Corsair

 A welcome find in JB's box of treats was this old Airfix Corsair.  It was actually pretty solid and needed only paintwork and decals.

I went for an overall mid-blue finish.  Basic but effective.

A Swift build? - part 2

Here is the completed Swift.  It’s a nice kit and a good representation of the real thing. To my eyes the Swift sometimes looks slightly odd but that’s because they expect to see a (similar but surprisingly different) Hunter. 

 

A Swift build? - part 1

Alongside the Javelin I built it’s near-contemporary the Swift. Ordered in the 1950s as ‘insurance’ against the Hawker Hunter failing (yes, that is a comical thought, but only with the benefit of hindsight), the Swift turned out to be a rather lacklustre fighter.  For much of it’s RAF service it was used in the reconnaissance role.  This is quite a new (2014 or thereabouts I think) kit but happily the parts count wasn’t terrifying.  Being a newish tooling it went together well.  

 

An awful Avenger? Or just a grim Grumman?

 

I was particularly pleased to find in JB's box this Avenger.  It was a relatively quick fix.  I opted for an overall mid-blue with the earlier-pattern markings.  I like it.

The Avenger as it arrived - several wobbly bits and the fuselage halves were parting company.

Flaky Fagot fettling - MiG-15 recovery part 3

 

Here is the finished MiG. In the end I opted for Chinese markings. I’d hoped to find North Korean decals but I have none in stock, and a set of North Vietnamese markings is earmarked for a newer model (in every sense) of MiG. A useful addition to my accumulation of aircraft. 

Flaky Fagot fettling - MiG-15 recovery part 2

Having slapped on an undercoat of matt black, I followed up with (fairly roughly applied) Revell silver.  Some red highlights were added and the canopy painted over.  Now I’m off to the decal box in search of something suitable.  

Flaky Fagot fettling - MiG-15 recovery part 1

This 50+ year veteran was passed to me in July by it’s original careful(?) owner. Still astonishingly solid after all this time, it was an obvious candidate for a quick recovery. I began by scraping off the remains of the decals and making sure there were no loose bits. 

Plane brown box…

A couple of weeks ago I spotted a post on a motoring forum I frequent. A bloke was offloading some built aircraft kits in scales from 1/72 to 1/32. I sent a message saying that in the event of him failing to receive an offer of actual money, I’d be happy to re home them. While not exactly local, Ken (as I’ll call him in accordance with my usual witness protection programme) happened to be visiting the neighbouring county last weekend. Thus it was that on Saturday a drive into a dark and rainy Derbyshire saw me return with…..

…this box of mystery!

I unpacked it the following day and swiftly arranged to rehome the 1/32 WW1 models (3) with Tom, various 1/48 scale models (4) with Richard & Paul and then I got to the main business of the day - the 1/72 scale kits.  All beautifully built and painted to a high standard. And here they are.  Apologies as usual for the hurried photos.  

Stearman Kaydet, a US 1930s trainer. No markings. Not sure yet what I’ll do with it. 

Meteor. I really don’t need this but it’s sooooo nice!

Se5a. I’ve since dusted them all and added a coat of varnish. I think the WW1 models are mostly Revell. 

Sopwith Camel. 

A striking Fokker D.VII. The ‘camo’ is decals. 

Gladiator. 

Spad in unusual but welcome Italian markings. 

You can probably work this one out for yourselves! It’s very red. 

Fokker E.1 - like some of the others this has rigging wires made of thread. Well beyond my skills and patience!

Another Fokker D.VII. 

Bonus view of the eindekker. 

What a great collection. Well worth a couple of hours and 56 miles worth of petrol!  I assured Ken that all the models will get used and appreciated so expect to see them again.