C4 Open 2013

It's the end of October and this means one thing - it's time for yet another C4 Open exhibition. For those of you who don't know what C4 Open is (which would be pretty much everybody outside of south-western Sweden and Copenhagen), it's an annual modelling exhibition that takes place at Technical Museum in Malmö. It's also a great opportunity to spend a lot of money on models and modelling supplies.

I could also put it in simple terms and simply say that C4 Open is the closest thing one comes to Nirvana if you're into this hobby and live in the area.

It has become something of a custom of mine to take a bunch of pictures from every installment of C4 Open. This year was no different and I have now selected a selection of best pics from this year's exhibition. Hope you'll enjoy them.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part III

Well, work on the Stuka continues slowly but surely and by now it's actually possible to see that it'st a Junkers 87. After all, that "broken" wing profile is pretty much instantly identifiable.

As can be seen in the pictures below, by now I'm done with most of the assembly process.I didn't encounter any major issues, with the exception of the slight misalignment between the fuselage halves, which was relatively easily fixed with a file and some putty. I was a bit overeager in this step, which resulted in substantial gap between fuselage and engine cover, but since it was 'self-inflicted' damage, I can't really complain about it. A bit of care and dry-fitting is advised, but any mistakes can be fixed with some putty. Couple of rivets and panel lines were filed off during the cleanup, but I guess that this is unavoidable with these older models with raised details.

Overall, the assembly went without major hiccups. Indeed, I was a bit surprised over how quickly I reached the stage where I could prime the model in preparation for the paint job.

Model primed and ready for paint

Lower surfaces preshaded and painted with RLM65 Helblau from Lifecolor.
The model was then masked in preparation of the paint job of upper surfaces.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part II

As usual, the Stuka project starts with the cockpit. There really isn't much to write about this step, as the cockpit of this kit would make a Spartan proud -  with the exception of a steering stick and a single, rather badly fitting decal for the instrument panel of the pilot, it completely lacks any details whatsoever. Thus, there is nothing to do but to paint the interior with RLM02 (I used Lifecolor UA504), add a bit of weathering according to personal taste (I limited myself to applying a quick GW Devlan Mud wash on all surfaces) and you're done.

After a short deliveration with myself, I decided also to use the crew figures. Hampden showed me that there is a bit of risk involved with this decision when it comes to these ancient Airfix kits, but I don't think that those figures will cause me any problems in this project.

I dedicated a bit more attention to the crew figures this time around.

All cockpits components before assembly of the fuselage.

Cockpit decal is apparently a late addition to the kit -
its fit with the instrument panel plate leaves a lot to be desired.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part I

With the rather anti-climactic and abrupt finale of the Hampden project, it is perhaps a bit foolish of me to pick up Airfix's Stuka as the 'get back in the saddle'-build. After all, it's actually more than a decade older than the Hampden and will therefore be equally frustrating to build and yes, it has a boatload of rivets... and yes, it also has raised panel lines.

I do however have to say that judged on parts alone straight out of the box, for a kit made in 1957 it doesn't look half-bad. The parts look crisp and there is no excessive flash indicative of old and worn moulds. Decals seem to be of equally high quality as those in other Airfix kits I worked with since my return to the hobby. The only thing that worries me is the shape of the propeller, which seems excessively thick and short.

Airfix Handley Page Hampden - Part II

Guess it had to happen sooner or later, but it's still annoying. I committed an irrecoverable mistake which landed my Handley build in the bin couple of minutes ago. The fatal mistake took place during construction of tail section - I put it together "wrong side up" and since I used super-glue to plug the gaps, a dis-assembly was pretty much impossible.

I have to be honest though and admit that I am not mourning over this "disaster", because as it turns out, the Handley project was not very enjoyable (which probably explains my slow progress). It definitely shows its age - the fit between the fuselage halves is very bad, the fit between the fuselage assembly and closed bomb bays is even worse. The crew figures are on the way of cockpit and the rare gunner makes it impossible to fit in the dual Lewis guns he's supposed to operate. And then we have the rivets sticking out all over the place, just begging to be filed down by accident - a wish which is impossible not to comply with, due to bad fit of different parts of the model.

The airplane type in itself is still very fascinating subject for me, but I doubt that I will pick this particular model yet again.

This is as far as I came before discovering the fatal mistake. 

Unseemly cover-up of badly aligned fuselage halves is clearly visible here.

The fatal mistake - what is up should be down and viceversa.

The result... the tail section just didn't fit with the rest of the fuselage.

Airfix Handley Page Hampden - Part I

On one side, the selection of my next subject matter is easily explained - I just love all these quirky French and British airplanes from initial part of Second World War and Handley Page Hampden certainly falls into that category. On the other hand, it may very well be questioned as voluntary subjugation to cruel and unusual punishment. After all, this kit is from 1968, how good can it be?

Well, the initial inspection discloses three things - the decals seem to be rather nice, interior detail won't win any awards and finally... the major parts actually do look crisp. OK, there is a lot of rivets and I know that some people frown upon them claiming they're vastly 'out of scale'! Personally, I don't really care about such stuff, or at least not just yet.

Sword Models Curtis P40 Kittyhawk III - Part V

As previous post probably indicated, there was very little left to do before the Kittyhawk was done. Flory's mud wash was wiped off before I brought out my box with powdered pigments. Previous misadventures taught me that when working with those, usually less is more. This time I've limited myself to areas around the engine exhausts - the pipes were first dirtied down and then a slight hint of rust was added in a final layer. Airframe below the exhausts was treated with black and brown pigments in an attempt to reproduce smoke residue. Finally, I applied irregular, very faint streaks of black, burnt sienna and raw umber pigments  all over the airframe, with upper wing surfaces and lower airframe gettin a little more attention than the rest of the model.

Then it was time to literally wipe out all those subtle visual effects. I love Testor's Dullcoat for its ability to bring everything to an absolutely matté finish, but I hate the side-effect of it wiping out 90 percent of those subtle effects that are achievable with pigments. This case was no exception - two coats of Dullcoat and most of the pigments were 'eradicated'.

Well, that's the end of yet another fighter project. Was it worth it? I think in this case it's a 'split decidion'. When finished, the model certainly looks very nice and the price of this kit should make it into a very attractive alternative. It was a rather frustrating build, but I was never at the brink of tossing it into the bin. I really didn't appreciate the fact that the decal sheet is partially unusable. Make whatever you want out of those observations and pictures below.