Paul Bradley's Airfix 1/72 F-111A

Following up on my Quick Peek of this kit last year, here’s a build report on this venerable kit.

As I mentioned previously, this kit had never been opened, so once I’d removed the parts from the bag, I was able to take a better look. Detail consists of fine raised lines, with heavier incised lines representing the upper and lower wing spoilers and flaps. The most troublesome issue that I could see was the very awkward placing of the upper/lower wing join, which was about 2/3rds of the way back chord-wise across the TOP of each wing...why the pattern maker did not put this on the bottom is beyond me.

Working features were the norm when this kit was released, and so the modeller is invited to build the model so that the wings sweep, the tail planes move and the crew escape module is made to be removable. This last feature results in some awkward seams at the front end.

Interior detail is limited to a basic cockpit tub, into which the then-standard Airfix jet pilots are installed. I painted this dark grey and added some generic instrument panel decals. The pilots were given orange test pilot jumpsuits and when they are in place, there’s not much else to be noticed in the cockpit.


At an early stage of construction, the wing sweep mechanism is fitted. This is a little slack, and I ended up with the wings being about 2 degrees different to each other. The tailerons are also designed to move together, and this worked better. These parts are trapped between upper and lower fuselage halves. The escape module is added next, along with the nose section and radome, and there is some work to be done eliminating seams here. Much of the panel line detail was removed in this process, and I elected to delete what was left rather than try to reinstate it all.

The intakes are simple one-piece inserts; although they are very shallow, I elected to paint the back blanking piece in black. Similarly, the exhausts are two parts with little depth. These were sprayed with ModelMaster Metalizer Buffable Magnesium. I buffed the rear parts, while leaving the afterburner sections dull; the effect is very presentable.

The canopy had previously taken a Future bath and once sufficiently set, was masked with Tamiya tape and superglued into place. The fit was reasonable, but I needed to sand the back and front left side of the canopy to get them to conform to the fuselage lines. This was not an issue, because the canopy has quite prominent framing. With that taken care of, and the one-piece fin fitted, the major airframe work is complete – this is a simple kit; many of the remaining parts are associated with the undercarriage. I elected to display this model on its stand and so these were added to my spares box.


The F-111A prototypes and pre-production batch were all finished in a light grey over white colour scheme. I began by giving the model an overall white coat, which highlighted a couple of areas of minor seamwork to be cleared up.

The demarcation line between the grey and white was a wavy line, and I recreated this using a pair of wavy-edged scrap-booking scissors and Post-it notes; with the control surfaces also remaining white, the masking took a while to complete. Once the grey had been sprayed (I used ModelMaster Acryl RLM 63), the masking was removed and some minor touching up done. Once this had set, I masked off and sprayed the prominent anti-glare panel on the nose with slightly lightened black acrylic. Then the model was given a coat of Future in preparation for decaling.


When I opened the box, I could see that the decals would be an issue. Not only were they badly yellowed, but they were also incorrectly coloured, with the blue of the insignia, USAF titles and serial number being far too light. I hunted around in my spares box for replacements, and managed to find enough suitable candidates to properly mark the model. There was some last minute panic when some of the decals splintered in water, but I had enough spares, which I coated with some Microscale decal film.

The last pieces to be added were the long nose probe, which is not a feature of production aircraft, and two small antennae on the spine.


This model was built as part of the UAMF’s Blitzbau VI, and I completed the model with just 15 minutes of the allotted 24 hours remaining. The build was really quite straightforward, and I am pleased with the results. Had I had more time, I might have elected to rescribe panel lines and perhaps added some intake and exhaust trunking, but I still think the model looks quite impressive as is.

John Ratzenberger's Airfix Ford Tri-motor

This is the Airfix 1/72 Ford Tri-Motor, which I built for the January 2010 Blitzbau on the Unofficial Airfix Modeller's Forum. For those of you unfamiliar, a Blitzbau is a 24-hour build. I take the senior citizen option and do it in 2 12-hour blocks with a rest break. Others go straight through.

I have been doing CBKs of civil airliners each Blitzbau, but in 1/144; this year I kept the theme but kicked up in size. I have never built this kit and haven't read anything about a build, so I went in blind and although things went well for a while, I soon ran into troubles.

The first problem was the wing fit. The method is to build two outer sections then join them to a center section, top half only. One side fit like a glove, the other is a bit high and has a slight gap. I decided to run a bead of CA to fill the seam and ignore the slight offset. Next, there is the matter of joining the wing to the fuselage and putting on the rear deck. To get a good clean fit on top, I will have to put a couple spreaders in the fuselage. There will probably be slight gaps on the underside. This kit is much like a limited run kit -- no locator pins or holes.

The second was the nacelles. I could understand the instructions, couldn't relate them to the parts I was looking at. When I tried to put up the struts and make things match, they wouldn't. Not only that, I've stared at real Tri-motor pix and understand what they should look like but cannot relate that to the kit parts or instructions. So my solution was to take the nacelles apart, put 'em back differently, then fill all the locating holes except for the gear. Then I CA'ed in the front and rear struts on the wing. Then I tweaked, trimmed, aligned, and cajoled until I had the nacelles sitting relatively neatly on the struts and then I CA'ed them in, accelerator squirting. Then I hacked the center struts in.

With parts literally hanging on by a thread of CA and accelerator, I gave it some more drying time, then started on the decals, at which point I knew I had spent a day for naught -- I got the underwing/overwing serials on and knew they looked like they wouldn't last. The American Airlines & Ford insignia's broke a little, the US Mail & tail serials a lot, so I just left them off. I might have gotten away with it, when I brushed against the upper wing serial and lifted off a piece I could not recover.


Final stats: 23.30 clock hours of which about 18 were actual modeling time. I get a complete, but I am not totally happy about it.

The kit is actually OK -- as I noted throughout, it fits but lacks locator pins to help the process, particularly while assembling the fuselage sides, top, and bottom. The instructions, particularly around step 32 where one is supposedly assembling the nacelles and mounting them -- well, I simply could not understand them and the exploded diagram was of no use. There is also a minor glitch around the heater -- the instructions say to make holes if you want it, but the holes are already there. Probably the only other thing to watch is mounting the exhaust ring to the nose engine, being sure you can get the engine firmly mounted on the fuselage. The trailing edges are way too thick and the corrugations a bit heavy.

My two errors. First and foremost, was not prepping ahead of time to possibly uncover the trouble spot with the nacelle and struts. That cost me several hours, which I would have had available if I hadn't been doing real life things. Second, was that I should have realized the decals were going to fail on me. I'm sure there are aftermarket items somewhere and I should have gone looking -- it's not like this was a last minute event.

Oh, well, all my choices...no biggie. For the next Blitzbau, I need to think simplicity...

It does look good, on its stand, in flight. The windows are big enough that some passengers and stews ought to be added. I'm happy with the way Barney & Fred in the cockpit came out -- too bad about the glass (pretty frosted and I didn't attempt cleaning). It wouldn't take much to add the few pieces of rigging to this, in particular a representation of the control cables on the very prominent arms on the outside of the fuselage.

Ralph Koziarski's Airfix Buffalo

I’ve seen the little Airfix Buffalo in stores many times over. I finally purchased one in October of 2009, perhaps 20 years after first seeing it at the now defunct Stanton Hobby Shop in Chicago, Illinois. As Airfix kits go, this one is pretty much standard fare; good overall shape, simplified detail, and a surface festooned with rivets. Airfix provides you with decals for both an U.S. Navy and a Royal Australian Air Force Buffalo. The decals in this recent boxing were on the 2006-2008 era brown backing paper that Hornby introduced and appears to have since done away with. Good thing, as the brown paper decals are utterly useless. More on this later.

I decided to build the Australian Buffalo, and to do so, a few simple modifications were necessary. I fashioned a new tail-cone from epoxy putty, and installed my approximation of the roll-bar and armor plate installed behind the pilot’s head. While I was at it, I also drilled out some machine-gun holes and shell ejection chutes in the wings (an easy modification that most Airfix kits need), and reattached the pilot’s head in a more dramatic pose.


The fit of the major components was mediocre to good. The fuselage halves fit relatively well, and only a small plastic shim was needed to fit the wing/belly assembly to the fuselage. The three part engine cowling needed a bit more coaxing, but after some filling and sanding, I got it to look acceptable. A considerable amount of sanding was necessary to fit the wheels in the closed position as they’re thicker than the little wheel bays inside the fuselage. In terms of fit, the most problematic components were the clear parts. As much as I love Airfix kits, I always dread the clear bits, as their notorious for either not fitting, not having well defined frames, or both. In this case, the frames were very well defined, but the fit was just awful.

Here is how I approached the canopy, but I’m sure a better way exists. First, I attached the rear piece and installed a plastic shim into the large gap between it and the spine of the fuselage. I smoothed this all over with some epoxy putty, and also added some putty along the base of the part where it meets the fuselage sides. Next came the windscreen, which just needed a little putty at the base to close up an uneven articulation with the fuselage. Finally I installed the middle portion of the canopy, which sits at a bit of a jaunty angle relative to the windscreen, but matches up well with the rear canopy piece. Go figure. Each time I tackle a project like this, I remind myself that I need to learn how to crash-mould my own canopies, and each time I get lazy and go with what is in the kit.

As the kit is so small, I decided to paint my Buffalo with a brush. I used some home-brewed shades of Polly Scale acrylics to approximate the US equivalent colors in which the Australian Buffalos were painted; a dark green slightly lighter than RAF dark green, and a dark earth slightly redder than British dark earth were applied to the top, while sky and black went onto the bottom. Later I would come back to paint in some wing-tip lights with red and green. One of the nice things about the RAAF Buffalos is that they had the bottom window painted over, and since the thing is so small on the kit, it would have been a nightmare to mask. Once the paint dried I applied a coat of Future and began to work with the decals.


Perhaps work with is the understatement of the year; what ensued was a titanic struggle, and an exercise in futility. I had heard many horror stories about the brown paper decals and as many bits of advice on how to fix them. I will not go into extensive detail on either, but will summarize by saying that the horror stories are true, while the solutions for managing these monstrosities are not. Painting them with future doesn’t help, painting them with decal fluid doesn’t help, using boiling water to remove them doesn’t help. Each decal will either crack, not come off the backing paper, or if it does come off, it will not have any adhesive to stick to the model. From the kit decals I was able to use two roundels. This meant going back to the paint shop (which is approximately 3 inches from the decal shop on my tiny modeling desk), masking off and painting on a sky band, and then scrounging up decals from the spares box. I unfortunately had little in my spares to work with. I cannibalized some roundels from a Hasegawa Hurricane, serials from a Mosquito, and fuselage codes and tail flashes from a Special Hobby Beaufort. Yes the squadron codes are inaccurate, but if I was strictly after accuracy I wouldn’t be building Airfix kits. Fun first, that is my modeling motto.


And fun this build was. Fun like most CBKs. Maybe that’s why we keep returning to them? It certainly is one of the main reasons for me. In keeping with the fun ethos of the build, after weathering with silver paint and pastels, I decided to hang up the finished model on my ceiling…just like in the good old days.

Jeff Selesky's Airfix 1/72 YAK-9D Build Part Two

In part two the process of finishing things up begins. First came a gloss coat of Future. I like Future as it ties the paint job together and evens the surface and it is very glossy for any decaling job.

I used the kit decals which have yellowed just a titch but overall not bad for the age. They are flat finished, very thin and brittle. A dip in a little warm water and they came off the backing sheet quickly. I did not use any decal solution and except for over one rivet, they settled nicely into place.

Once dry, I overcoat the whole model with another coat of Future. This smooths everything out again. When the Future is dry, I finished up with Testor's Dullcoat.

Final assembly is started by adding a aerial made from sprue, painting the guns and prop blade tips, and adding the pilot figure who is reclining like in a F-16 because of the seat position. Pastel chalks were used for exhaust streaking. The canopy is nice and clear and fits very well. And of course you have to use the Airfix stand. In this case I have it backwards as the model tips over placed the other way.

Over all, this was a fun project and it looks like a Yak-9D when finished. It would make a great candidate for a Blitzbau.

John Ratzenberger's Frog 1/72 Fairey Swordfish I

My fourth and last (as in the paint completely dried the day before I had to mail it) build for Telford -- this requested to be in the float version. I already had this kit in the stash because of my large 'silver wings' collection. The floats were dictated, I selected the 'tween war 'silver wings' scheme.

All in all, it is a nice kit. The raised panel lines are a bit much so I knocked them down slightly. The 3 crew members make/cover up for the lack of cockpit detail. It builds fairly nicely, with just two major problem areas. First, the outer wing panel tabs don't fit well into the center section slots. After opening the slots up a bit, then the tabs and slots had insufficient mating surface and were very weak. On the second try, I got everything aligned and then poured in superglue. Unfortunately the left lower wing slipped slightly.

The second problem is the floats. The kit has you glue the strut assembly into the float then glue each to the fuselage and wings. The glue joint on the fuselage/wings isn't great, but worse than that the floats were canted outboard. I had to carefully saw/cut the struts where then joined to the floats and bend the floats inward, breaking a strut or two off the fuselage/wings. I needed four hands, but substituted tape and superglue and a long drying spell. Needless to say, they didn't dry exactly straight, so it looks as if they had a hard catapult or landing. Last step was the rigging with steel wire.

Paint is Tamiya Gloss Aluminum rattle-can with Humbrol for details. The decals are right out of the kit box, went on like a charm, and settled nicely with MicroSol and MicroSet. I finished it off with Mr SuperCoat Semi-Gloss, something that really makes 'silver wings' look good, in my opinion.

With the crew hiding the empty cockpits, an in-flight display was a natural -- not to mention it's where a Stringbag belongs. The kit looks good and it's my favorite of the 4 builds.

John Ratzenberger's Frog 1/72 Martin Maryland

Another build for the CBK Frog display at Telford -- this time in the options category where all color/marking options were built. For the Maryland, I drew the Free French marked bird (by virtue of being 2nd to volunteer) while another SIG member did the SAAF-marked plane. I knew little about the Maryland when I started and not much more when I finished.

Another find off E-bay. There were several issues with the kit -- one nacelle was poorly molded and I had to reshape it. One wing half was slightly warped, requiring straightening. The gear doors are very thick and I decided to do it in-flight to simply avoid the hassle of cleaning them up. As usual there is minimal interior, but the crew hides some of that. Fit was so-so but I worked through it. I am convinced there is a very slight warp in the rear fuselage -- the rudder appears offset.

Anyway, it was painted in the kit color scheme using paints from the White Ensign Colour Coats range. The original kit decals were out of register and I got a second set from another CBK SIG member -- to find some of them were out of register. I dug a set of French insignia out of my stash and between the 3 managed to come up with a complete set of decals. You'll see the Lorraine Crosses are different than the rest of the decals.

All finished, at a nice angle on the stand, it looks quite good. I'm not aware of other Maryland kits to compare this to.

John Ratzenberger's Frog 1/72 Gloster Whittle E28/39 Pioneer

To support the SIG display at Telford, I signed on to do the Frog "Pioneer", a model of England's first jet aircraft. I knew little about it and shamefully can say I haven't improved much on that -- one reason being the builds were Out of the Box so I didn't take off on one of my AMS fits.

I got the bagged kit from E-bay and it was in fine shape. I didn't know until then that Frog had royally botched the scale on the kit, with evidently the wings taken from 1/72nd scale drawings and the fuselage from a 1/64th scale drawing. Looking at any pictures of the real aircraft, the discrepancy is obvious. Frog provided two pilots -- one standing and one seated -- and it appears they got them from two different "scale drawings" as the seated one is very small and the standing one very large. Regardless, the seated pilot is needed to fill up the very empty bathtub cockpit. Continuing the criticisms, the gear doors are very, very thick and the interior of the intake wrong. One the other side, it goes together cleanly with little difficulty or fill. It does require nose weight to keep it from tail-sitting.

I did nothing to the kit, building it right out-of-the-bag, so to speak. I painted it with appropriate colors from the White Ensign Colour Coat series. There is some "controversy" as to the exact configuration, as a prototype it was under continual modification, and the matching color schemes and markings at any one time. I chose to go strictly by the marking instructions provided by the kit.

But not with the kit decals, at least not the second time. Giving the paint plenty of time to dry, I applied the kit decals using Micro-Sol/Set and let them dry over a day. It appeared I could get away with them, but when I then hit it with DullCoat they started rolling and peeling off. Unfortunately, I went off to do something else and didn't see this happen or I could have reduced the damage to the paint -- by the time I got back the Dullcoat had glued the rolled up decals to the surface. After much work, I got them off but then had to repair some paint damage. I reapplied kit markings but using all aftermarket decals and all was well.

I can't recommend the kit, given the major scale discrepancy -- I understand there are other, in scale, kits of this aircraft available.

John Ratzenberger's Frog 1/72 Armstrong Whitworth Whitley VII

When the CBK SIG listed the Whitley as a candidate build for this year's display, I jumped at the chance. I remembered reading about it in Peter Green's Famous Bombers decades ago and it's hard to forget with the barn door flying surfaces and chin scraping along the ground.

I got the kit off E-bay for a good price, packed in a freezer bag but other than a broken, but present, prop blade it seemed in good shape. The plane was generally well molded, but with numerous small sink marks on the fuselage, all of which cleaned up easily. Panel lines are raised, but very finely; glass is thick and not very clear but that is OK as interior detail is minimal. The lower right wing half was badly warped and required some effort to glue both halves together straight. I glued and clamped in stages, with a bit of heat where needed. Some filler and then sanding on the seams at the nacelle made everything right.

The kit goes together quite well but I had issues with the join at the left wing root which not only had gaps top and bottom but fore and aft -- the right wing fit perfectly. The tabs on the wings and the spar through the fuselage, while making for a strong join, complicate fixing up the root. Gear doors are quite thick and I thinned them down. The gear legs must be installed early on and are vulnerable to breaking, as is the fragile tail wheel.

The only shortcoming with the Mk.VII version is the antennas -- those on top are too thick and the four on each side are not provided. I was going to add them, but decided they would be vulnerable to packing and shipping. The two antenna sticking out under the wings are just waiting to be broken.

The model is finished in kit markings, but not kit decals -- they disintegrated on contact with water. The paint is from the White Ensign Colour Coat range, the decals aftermarket.

This is a unique kit (Frog is, to my knowledge, the only company to do it) and quite impressive when finished. Simple improvements such as thinning gear doors, opening intakes and exhausts, and correcting the antenna will really kick it up a notch.

Jeff Selesky's Airfix 1/72 YAK-9D Build Part One

This issue of the YAK-9D is Series 2-46 and the instruction sheet indicates the Airfix Corporation of America, Philadelphia 24, PA. I would guess that this 29 part kit is a classic.

The box art.


The instruction sheet "A" side.


The instruction sheet "B" side.


The slightly yellowed, glossy decal sheet. Yellow (gold) outline on the national insignia.


Here is the parts layout.


Initial construction does not take long. Clamps were used due to a little warpage in the fuselage halves.


Here is the construction and a test fit of the "classic" Airfix stand. It sets best backwards as it tips over the other way. The propeller needs a little TLC. Careful filing away flash and mold marks is tedious as there is not much left to hold the blade to the spinner.


The color callouts for the YAK 9D on the instruction sheet was for dark green and brown. I personally felt that the two Russian grays were more appropriate for the 9D. Polly Scale colors were used with a Badger 200 fine tip airbrush. Masking was done with "Blue Tack" snakes.


In Part Two I will gloss it up and added the decals. Then, as they say, "finish up this little lot."

Jeff Selesky's Airfix 1/72 Beaufighter Build

Airfix Series 2, Pattern 283, Bristol Beaufighter T.F.X. coded MB*T. I will do it in USAAF markings using a scheme found in Colour and Markings with an O.D. tail unit, 416th NFS Italy. I built this kit many years ago and remember it to a good build. I always felt the cowl rings seemed a little mis-shapened, maybe too flat, but I'm not really sure.



The reference material.


I hope it will kinda look like this, only smaller.


I started by gluing the wings, wheels, and generally anything in two halves together.
The engine nacelles received a filing down of the cowl flaps so they don't look so much like bumps in the plastic. You will notice on the port wing that I got sloppy with the Tenex 7R and had to clean that mess up.


While trimming the edges of the wings, I began to use a round file to clean up the intakes.


The horizontal stabilizers have a rather nasty knock out tab mark that will need attention.


My decals are sourced out from an old Micro Scale sheet. I didn't notice until looking at the photograph that one has a run in the blue color.


I pulled out the trusty razor saw and removed the position lights and landing lights from the wing. This space is now packed with clear sprue and awaits filing to shape. I really did not want to go overboard with this project but it should really look OK when done. Before gluing in the clear sprue, small holes were drilled to simulate light bulbs. The holes received a spot of red and green paint. Also I filled and sanded the marks on the horizontal stabs and cleaned up the landing gear a little.


I filed down the clear sprues and have everything roughed in. Now the progressively fine grit treatment. The landing light has two bulb/filaments and when masked for painting, the two lens will appear.


After a comment by SIG member Bruce Grayson, I decided to correct landing light in the front of the wing. Here is the new landing light. My camera has created a little distortion. The dimple type holes were drilled in the back of the clear sprue and dabbed with silver paint. Not perfect but better than the pin holes I originally started with.


The general airframe together with the test fitting of the canopy. I must say that over all it is a well fitting kit. The was a tiny step at the wing/fuselage joint but over all, considering the age of the kit, it is all good. I did add a pilots seat. Holes will now be drilled to accommodate the radar antennas. I did give thought to adding a new nose cone but the A1 radar was used in some of the USAAF Beaus.


Here are the engines. Nothing but kit part. Flat black with a silver pris-color pencil in lieu of dry brushing.


The clear parts are fixed in place and antenna holes drilled out. I counted 13 locations in all. The arrow antenna in the nose, two each on each leading edge of the wings, and two each both top and bottom of each wing. When the clear parts are set, I will begin masking for a primer coat.




The Beau is coming out of the paint shop with the usual scheme with a twist. This particular USAAF bird apparently had a replacement tail which was reportedly overall Olive Drab. The roundels were over-sprayed in preparation for the US stars and bars.


Painting and decaling is complete. Pulling the masks off, there was only a couple of touch-ups required.


When thinking it over about the landing gear doors, I elected to pull out my trusty rat tail file and went to work. With the front edge thinned down, the doors were attached. Also debated in my mind was the color I would use for the rings on the nacelles. I finally settled for a Metallizer color Burnt Exhaust as the USAAF received the Beau from RAF maintenance depots and to me that meant they had been around the block a few times and would not show a copper or brass/bronze look.

I noticed that the prop blades seemed to molded with the all the blades at a different pitch. I let that one slide.


The completed build. The radar aerials are short pieces of wire "super glued" in place. Any bets as to how long they stay on? The communication aerial is stretched sprue. Red decal material was used for the gun muzzle covers. I have to admit, it was done for a little splash of color.