Monday 1 December 2014

Reveal - Tamiya 1/32 F-15E Strike Eagle

www.bowemodels.com

A superb kit, this one, building into a seriously imposing model. This is a commission built for a customer who used to fly these things.

One of the few criticisms of the kit is the provision of a single centre line fuel tank which is a configuration that was rarely used. I added two wing tanks from GT Resin (best avoided if possible) and two AIM-120 missiles from Flightpath to give a more realistic load out configuration.

Otherwise, this kit is Tamiya at its predictable best. Crisp and detailed mouldings that fit together perfectly. I added the Eduard interior and exterior sets which nicely dress up the cockpit and spent many hours putting together the fine burner can detail but it was worth the effort.




















Sunday 2 November 2014

Reveal - Doyusha 1/100 Lockheed L1011 Tristar

www.bowemodels.com

A minor departure for me, my subjects are usually more military in focus. However, this customer is looking for a specific Gulf Air aircraft that has a personal connection, and I love doing that kind of commission. Makes a change from building missiles and bombs....

The kit, despite the unusual scale, is accurate, and is probably the only Tristar kit to get the shape of the nose right. It suffers from a lack of locating pins in some areas, so take care lining things up. The Gulf Air decals were sourced from F-Decal and modified to create the required aircraft.

The model was painted with a combination of Tamiya acrylics and Alclad II lacquers for the metallic parts. The customer wanted some weathering to match existing photos of this plane, which was done using a combination of oil paint and pastels. The passenger windows were painstakingly filled in with PVA glue.















Tuesday 2 September 2014

Reveal - Airfix/Alley Cat 1/48 Javelin Mk7

www.bowemodels.com

Yes, I know I built the new Airfix 1/48 Javelin recently, but this one is special. The customer wanted it converted to Mk 7 XH754 using the Alley Cat resin conversion set, which involves some modifications to the wings and a replacement nose and exhaust section. And this is probably the most colourful aircraft scheme I have built in a very long time!

This project was inherited from the exceptionally talented Phil Goodier, who sadly passed away earlier this year, and I am honoured to have been asked by his wife to pick up a number of his projects. So this build is dedicated to you, Phil. Thank you for all the superb models you graced to this world. You will be dearly missed not only by your loving family, but also by all lovers of great models.

















Sunday 10 August 2014

Reveal - Revell 1/32 Supermarine Spitfire MKIIa

www.bowemodels.com

The latest addition to Revell's brilliant 1/32 series, this brand new tool Spit, whilst not quite attaining the refinement of Tamiya's 1/32 series, comes in at around a fifth of the price, so who's complaining? With the addition of some Eduard enhancements the results are not far off, that's for sure.

It builds very well, just a small number of fit issues and ambiguities that are easily overcome.