Tuesday 23 October 2012

WWII School Project Completed: 1/48 Spitfire Vb and 1/72 Dornier Do.17E (Airfix)

The deadly foes on the table (see below) with wait ... hold the front page .. decals applied :)


"Snowdrop leader, Snowdrop leader,this is Snowdrop Six, Tally Ho!" ... sorry I couldn't resist it ;) ... I think it looks magical onc those big decals have gone on :)


Meanwhile the bomber drones on (see below) and I think its more sombre decals make it look very menacing (Note:By virtue of European Law Airfix are not allowed to depict the swastika, which would have adorned the rear twin tail flaps - and it is far too hard for me to try and paint on given the project deadline):


Now with a coat of protective varnish on (see below), from a very old but 'reliable' tin of Humbrol 'enamel style' matte. This was after I had an unmitigated disaster trying to use the more modern acrylic matte varnish (in their square tins) and getting it horribly wrong. I had probably rushed it but it looked to my terrified eyes to be drying with a white "winter camouflage" sheen to it .... argh. And this was the Sunday night before the Monday deadline and I had been left in charge putting the "smelly varnish coat on" after the rest of the family had gone to bed! Luckily I had started on the German Dornier Bomber first and spotted the damage, which meant it was so much easier to repaint (I would have ruined the Spitfire's decals) ...whew!


One last flypast before I hand them over with compulsory sound effects "wheewwwizzzooo" (see below). I also like the angry yellow wing stripes and machine gun read patches on the wings. 


Anyway I am chuffed to bits with them both and even better my eldest son thinks they are cool too, paying particular attention to the Spitfire ("that's my boy"). I do intend to "tart" then up a bit when I get them back from the school display, although I've heard the German Dornier has already taken a bit of "flak" damage from the hands of Year 3. I plan to hang both planes from my son's bedroom ceiling.

6 comments:

Tim Gow said...

These look fabulous! I hadn't previously realised the Spittie was a 1/48 kit - a scale in which I have yet to dabble. The absence of swastikas on decal sheets is a real pain and makes a nonsense of the kit. After all had it not been for the swastika's political backers (no friends of mine) there probably wouldn't have been a Do17. Or a Spitfire. Now there's a topic for a history project.
Returning to the plot, to deal with the missing decal problem i bought a sheet of variously sized swastika decals a few years ago.

Arquinsiel said...

I've never noticed it before, but now that you mention it I think my kits are all suspiciously lacking in swastikas....

When I used to work in Xbox tech support one of the secret questions people would put on their account was "Who is your favourite historical person?" and the answer would almost invariably be "Hitler" for ease of memory (and easy hacking...). I used to calm the embarasment by pointing out that if it wasn't for Hitler we'd not have Call of Duty or any of the awesome war movies etc. Worked like a charm.

I really wasn't paid enough there.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Hello Tim,

Thanks for the praise

Strangely enough making models in 1/48 seemed miles easier than 1/72 .. much less fiddlier altogether

The piece are a decent enough size and have a certain robustness about them. They slotted together quiet beautifully

The paint goes on better and the need/temptation to highlight is reduced, plus the Spitfire size in 1/48 was a robust handful so you could get a solid grip :)

Wise move with the swastika decals but it does seem strangely anti-history to obliterate a symbol from the pages of history that the Nazi's actually stole and perverted from its original meaning

Not quite book burning but ....

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers Arquinsiel,

lol regarding the Hitler secret question

A few awkward moments on many a techie help services call from a customer methinks

Re: swastika's, yes the tail planes of the WW2 German aircraft are suspiciously blank ;)

Prufrock said...

Lovely stuff!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers Prufrock