Re: What's on YOUR workbench?

A whole bunch of stuff to be repaired, and lots of inertia.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Just finishing a Fujimi 1/48 French SA-342 Gazelle depecting the first one my wife flew in at EPNER. Scratch built a test bank for the left seat, harness reels, and overhead panel. Also just finished a Heller (Airfix)

1/72 Hawker Typhoon, and I have to admit... it had me rethinking my sole adherence to God's Scale....

Tamiya 1/35 Universal Carrier and British Infantry on Patrol (to be combined in a diorama), Tamiya 1/35 JS-3 Stalin, Heller 1/35 Somua S-35, Dragon 1/35 Red Devils, Dragon 1/35 54cm Mörser. All in different stages of completion.

Plus loads of papers, sanding paper, instructions, brushes, plastic containers of all kinds of sizes, Q-tips, toothpicks, airbrush, minitool, static grass, paints, oil paints, 7 kinds of glue, latex gloves, dust masks, nasty chemicals... [It's almost a biohazard area :-)] and under the table my air compressor and a big bag of plaster...

Got into a bit of an airliner habit of late here's what's on the go right now :

Airfix 1/144 DC-9-30 being built OOB with kit decals for Iberia Airlines (Primer coats done, waiting for warmer weather to get final finish painting done). Airfix 1/144 DC-9-30 converted to DC-9-14, Microscale decals for Hughes Airwest (Primed as above) Airfix 1/144 DC-9-30 converted to DC-9-51, Flightpath decals for Northwest Airlines (Primed and rubbed down, waiting for repriming). Got 2 more DC-9's waiting for the fuselages to be cut to make a -15 and a -41, not decided on a scheme for the -15 yet (probably Eastern Airlines though) but the -41 will be in Toa Domestic (TDA) colours. Airfix 1/144 Boeing 737-200, wings painted, final scheme undecided probably Alaska Airlines or Air New Zealand. Airfix 1/144 Boeing 737-200 converted into a -100, fuselage cuts done, waiting assembly will be done in Lufthansa colours. Airfix 1/144 Boeing 727-200, rescribed panel lines, primed, final scheme undecided probably Pan-Am, Delta or Emirates.

Also have on the backburner an Airfix 1/48 Buccaneer S.2 fuselage built up and primed, not as bad a build as some would have it, I will return to this one once Spring arrives and I can get some painting done, it's just too darn cold to paint outdoors right now.

Happy modelling Ant

Tamiya KV-1B (almost done), Hobbycraft Humvee (1/2 there maybe) and AMT Kazon ship (1/2 done, MAYBE..., takes more work than I thought). And to think I said at one time "I build WWII US Navy aircraft". Hmmm....

At the moment, nothing. My job absorbs most of my time so I can only model in bursts at certain times of the year.

Awaiting completion over Easter and, probably, in the summer are the Hawker Tempest 5, Albatros DII and Ford T that I was working on at Christmas. A Roden Fokker DVII in post-war Dutch Navy colours and a Bell UH-1N Twin Huey in US Navy markings are also overdue for attention.

I seem to have about 30 unfinished projects and I've decided not to start anything new until they are finished. How long that decision will last is anyone's guess. Somewhere in the loft are about 25 AFVs that have never had decals applied. I suppose I should do those as well but I can't find them. Some have been without markings for 15 or 20 years so I don't suppose they can be called a high priority.

I realised guiltily some time ago that some of my stash has been with me, untouched, since the mid-1960's! I can't relaistically expect to finish all my kits in my lifetime and I've started earmarking kits for disposal. The list is nearing 100 now and I'll sell them as a job lot to my local model shop owner who does a big trade in second hand kits. Even if I dispose of another 100, I'll still have too many kits.

Incidentally, my workbench is a piece of laminated chipboard 20inches by 10 that I put on my desk when I get the chance to do a bit of modelling. The rest of the time, it is propped against the end of a shelf unit, out of the way.

Gordon McLaughlin

LOL That is a condition known as Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy or SABLE. :-)

What scale and where did you get it?

PRU blue did survive a while; Bomber Canberras wore two tone grey over PRU blue after they changed from grey over black, some of the aircraft used at Suez were in this scheme and are the subject of a Modeldecal sheet. As for the PR Canberras, the initial PR.3s wore grey over PRU blue schemes before they were changed over to natural metal, so it's not too much of a leap of imagination.

Jon.

Piles of assorted crap. Seldom used junk takes refuge on my workbench safe in the knowledge that it is unlikely to be pushed aside (or, God forbid, cleaned up!) in an effort to reach the Accurate Miniatures Yak-1 that sits in the back. About a month ago, I completely dusted the kit off, glued on the stabs, sanded a bit at the wing roots and pushed it back exhausted. My creative juices flow in intermittent squirts, I'm afraid.

Doug Wagner

The wings of a scratchbuilt Air Tractor AT-401B. I've recently gotten into scratchbuilding,have a lot to learn but it keeps me occupied a lot longer then a shake and bake kit :)

Well Enzo, I'm workin' on an 1/12 Airfix 1930 Bentley 4.5 supercharged, an old kit, with a lot of work to do, but a very interesting model to build.

In fact, I'm creating a lot of parts myself because original parts are often very simplified...

It's a long way project...

Hoo, boy! Five different straight-wing F-84s (Aeromaster, Frog, Tamiya, Academy, and Rareplanes) - part of a long-term project for a yet-to-be-determined IPMS/USA national contest, Hawk T-6, Revell/Lodela Convair 990 in American Airlines markings, Revell Easykit 1/100 F-18, Monogram Superkit 1/64 F-86A, Aurora F-84F and F9F-6, Revell/Monogram '40 Ford coupe converted to a Deluxe (inspired by the original issue AMT '40 Ford and will be built as a 'box art' car with the repro flame decals from Chimneyville), AMT *58* Imperial convertible (restoration of a built kit), AMT '64 Thunderbird convertible with chassis & engine from the new(ish) '62 T-Bird kit and a whole bunch more, not to mention the started projects stacked up

*next* to my workbench. Pant, pant... ;-p

It's little wonder that I rarely get anything finished anymore...

Looks pretty good. Nice work. On my MPC kit I did notice an 'Airfix' copyright date on the inside of the wing...1972! I joined the halves last night and should start the wing today. The fit was not that great and I do have some seem work to do. This is no Tamiya for sure. Good(Tamiya) kits have gotten SO expensive I can't afford them. I have read and seen alot of good things about Trumpeter. Anyways, your Ridge Runner looks great all things considered. Very nice alluminum finish. How did you achieve it. I think I will just go with Model Masters buffing metalizer.

In between grinding out issues of ESM72 there is a pile of started kits.Each gets some attention almost every week (I said "almost").

Two MAI Yak-11s converted to the P&W2000 powered gloss black and chrome bird that I have the pleasure to fly on occasion. One with all the details, both after market and scratch, the other for the plane's owner in flight configuration with everything zipped up. Airfix C-47 corrected and converted to an XCG-17 glider. Not the conversion kit, scratch with the help of Dave Boksanski twenty-five or so years ago. It's actually approaching surface finishing. At various stages of completion: resin Ames AD-1, Airfix Draken, Reducta Nord 262, Heller Alouette III, Academy WC54 Ambulance, 2x High Planes Rare Bears (one for me one for the team), a 1/700 Liberty Ship (one that my father helped build in Sausalito), master for a long delayed MAI Ryan Brougham, Heller T-33 (one that I flew often with the 84th FIS at Hamilton AFB), 1/72 Glencoe/ITC Disney Rocket to the Moon (the kit is a

1/72 scale model of the original display rocket in Disneyland), and a few others behind the rest in the model cabinet.

I have cut back on buying new kits by quite a bit. The couple of thousand in the garage should suffice for a few years :-)

Tom

snip

Hughes OH-6A Cayuse 028 Italeri 1/72 Eurocopter SA 341 Westland Gazelle (Sud Aviation) 01059 Airfix 1/72 Hughes AH-6A Night Fox 017 Italeri 1/72 Grumman F8F Bearcat 72006 Sword 1/72

Thanks.

Tell me about it... ;-p

It's foil. I would have painted the wings silver if it had been for myself but it was a commissioned job and the customer wanted a bright NMF all the way around.

About 1/96th, it's a limited edition display model from BAE Systems at Warton. I'm not quite sure of the provenance, it came to me as a Christmas present from friends who work there. It was cast by Grand Manner, whose main product line is wargaming scenery, so this was obviously a commission. Resin airframe, white metal accessories (aerials, pylons etc.) No interior or undercarriage, but a presentation stand and a hefty bolt to keep it there.

The casting is not as good as I'd like - one whole wing is thicker (it shows at the trailing edge) but I will have to live with that, not wanting to sand down and reprofile a solid resin wing and then try to rescribe the panel line detail (in resin!). I am replacing the jetpipes with brass tube to get a better approximation to scale thickness.

I didn't know that... what shade of grey, is there a reference you can point me at? I can see hemp-and-grey going with a maritime tasking, anti-shipping recce and strike.

I believe it was (almost) overall PRU Blue with the uppersurfaces having Medium Sea Grey with a high demarcation line on the fuselage. Spitfire PRXIXs wore a similar scheme.

Got it. One of the recent Aviation Workshop profiles, PR Spitfires, has illustrations showing a couple of PR.19's in this scheme, and identifies the grey as MSG. Both were Far East basings, I guess the home squadrons would be using Meteors by then?

Hmmm. Does look quite nice. Who does a Spitfire PR.19 in 1/72, I wonder?

For the TSR.2 as Canberra Replacement the idea of 39 Squadron having an expanded role as Maritime Strike and Recce is consistent with their history and would be a firm basis for Hemp/Light Aircraft Grey.

Then there's the idea of Dark Earth/Mid Stone wraparound, appropriate for a what-if Gulf War 3.14159. Perhaps I do need another TSR.2 after all.....