Progressing my Norwegian project

Over the last couple of years, and especially in the last few months, I've been purchasing the final pieces for my Norwegian project that has been discussed previously here. 

One of the primary reasons I had not pushed my Norwegian project was the lack of a NM135 model.  Recently I've discovered a couple.  One a 3D print file and the other from Hobbyden.  Brian Walsh there has recently produced a NM135, which is a primary component of a 1986 Norwegian  mechanised infantry force.  Hopefully I'll have 4 NM135s coming in the next little while. 

As a result of some commission work I did recently for a friend, I have also been able to get enough troops for a Norwegian platoon, plus a few others. I won't be showing them until they are painted though.

I have a bunch of diecast Leopard 1s and M48A5s so that's the tanks taken care of, with a bit of tinkering.

So what I was missing for my Norwegian's was primarily aircraft.  This has now been resolved:

Obviously the first thing you need is a F-16.  What better than this specific Norwegian F-16A+ by Fujimi.

Next I needed a F-5A Freedom Fighter.  These are relatively hard to find - everywhere you look you can find F-5E which are just not right.  Although this is Hasegawa kit comes with Dutch and Canadian decals, I'll sort out something to make it Norwegian.

The final aircraft I needed was one of these.  Talk about rare as hen's teeth.  Just had to have one of these for my Aerial Forward Observer.  No choppers here pal.  This is an original 1970's Airfix kit.  Only problem is now I feel like I'm being barbaric if I open it up and make it... 

Anyway - that's it for today.  Next update will be another project, where I've actually made some real progress, not just bought stuff.

Thanks

Richard

OK.... So it's become pretty obvious I have a problem...

The other day I was looking through the stash and I started to realise that I had accumulated a fair amount of Cold War aircraft.  It's become a kind of guilty pleasure which should last me for years considering how long it takes me to make and paint aircraft.

Now bear in mind these are just the boxed model kits.  If I've gotten rid of the box for some reason - it didn't make the list.  So no inclusion of a C-130, an A-10 and an A-7, a Starfighter, F-16, MiG-21, Su-25 etc.  None of the made and painted aircraft will be shown either - nor helicopters....

So here we go starting with some general Soviet air support:

And some for my Naval Infantry:

In that case I need some air support for my USMC:

And my Royal Marines need a bit as well:

My BAOR need's some more support:

Something for my Danes:

(I'll use another one of those for my Norwegians), plus one of these:

So that just leaves this:

to be used for either my Americans, Belgians or possibly even Dutch.

Well - looking back I realise my problem isn't so bad.  No problem at all actually - so it makes perfect sense to get that Su-24 afterall, and that Su-22, and probably a couple more F-16s and Tornadoes (for the Germans), a Skyhawk, a Bronco, a F-4G Wild Weasel, and F-4 for the USAFE and one for the Luftwaffe and ..........

So.  No problem at all.

Richard

Matchbox Phantom FG1/FGR2 - Revisited & Completed (Again!)

Well - as I posted last time I've revisited my Matchbox Phantom FG1/FGR2 kit that I "finished" back in December last year.  Back then, Paul Foster commented that the model might pop a bit more if I did the panel lines.  I completely agreed with him, and when the right product came along I decided to have a crack at it.

So here's the original:

And here's the new version

Original

New

Original

New

Original

New

So there we go - all done.  Interested in what you think of the panel lines - particularly on the top of the aircraft.  Too dark?  I'm not sure.  Typing this I just realised that I still need to hit it with a flat coat.  I wonder whether this will tone down the darker panel lines somewhat.

Oh well - I guess it's not finished after all.....  Will any of these projects ever end!!!!!

Richard

Matchbox Phantom FG1/FGR2 - Revisited

Well this is actually a revisit rather than a proper Work-In-Progress.

I try and keep an eye out on new products or procedures that will help my modelling - particularly my aircraft modeling which is not great.  I stumbled across this product...

...and did a bit of investigating, watched a couple of clips on Youtube, and thought I'd give it a go.

So
I re-sprayed my Phantom with an Acrylic Gloss coat, and started to have use the Panel Line Wash:

This is what it looks like when you pin wash the panel lines.  It doesn't take long as the wash flows nicely along the lines when you dot it on a panel line.  I've used the darkest grey wash here as I tried the medium wash and you couldn't see it very well.  I might try the medium on the underside of the plane as it is lighter.

The idea is you pin wash it one, and then use MiG Enamel thinners to carefully wipe it off, leaving the wash in the panel lines.  It takes a bit of effort - and I'm sure the way I'm doing it is not 100% fantastic - but so far I think it looks better.  I should probably have started on a brown or green plane to start with but the Phantom is the plane that needs the effect the most.

Next time I show the Phantom - hopefully it will look significantly better!

Thanks

Richard

Matchbox Phantom FG1/FGR2

Carrying on with my attempts at aircraft, it was time to knock off another old favourite and complete this old Matchbox Phantom I started over 2 years ago.  As always with me and planes, it comes down to the painting - starting with trying to get the right colours.  I think this Phantom has about 4 different spray coats as I attempted to find the right colour.

Anyway - here she is in the livery of 23 Squadron whilst based out on the Falkland Islands:

All-in-all I'm quite pleased with out she came out.  For whatever reason I'm a bit disappointed with the way the canopies look.  I guess the light blue on the light grey doesn't look the same against some of the darker colours, but I can live with it.

Anyway - thanks for looking and welcome to the blog for 2017.

Richard

New Airfix Harrier GR.3

I've just finished taking a bunch of photos so I thought I would post a few now rather than wait until tomorrow.

So ages and ages ago when I first started this blog I posted up first one and then another  old Airfix Harrier GR.3s - on the ground.  I knew one day I'd need a flying one for some air support, and now I've finally finished it.

Truth be told, I stole the two laser-guided bombs from one of the old Harrier's (previously stolen from a Buccaneer kit) and stuck them on this Harrier - just for something a bit 'cool'.  The only downside of the kit, from memory, is the only offensive armament is a couple of AIM-9L sidewinder AAM.  I needed something to give it a more CAS feeling!

So here it is:

The last photo is a little dodgy - I was trying to show the ordnance.

Anyway - that's another job done.  Now I just need to finish that RAF Phantom and one day add a Tornado and a Hawk to my asset list.

Thanks for looking

Richard

SEPECAT Jaguar

Back in April this year I posted up a couple of photos of a Jaguar and Harrier kit I just just built (here).  It's taken a while, and typically for me when it comes to aircraft, a couple of minor disasters, but now I'm classifying the Jaguar as finished!

I decided to have another crack with my airbrush - which is slowly becoming less of a scary event for me and more of just another tool.  One day I'll get there.

Very much a 3 foot test viewing model - and at that range I'm very happy with it.  So back away from your computer before viewing...

So there you have it.  Air support for my BAOR or Royal Marines or any other British force.

Thanks

Richard

Combat Air Patrol - F-15C Eagle

As part of my WW3 wargaming/rules writing/tinkering around, I fiddled with some rules for having a Combat Air Patrol (CAP) up, so you could attempt to gain local air superiority over the battlefield (your tabletop!).

Whilst I really like this as a concept and I think it can add a little flavour to the game, what this meant was you need some kind of marker on the table to say your CAP is up.  Sounds like an excuse to buy some cool 1980s fighter plane models and put them on the table!

So I had my airbrush out for the first time in a year or two last weekend, really in readiness to paint the green cam on the Harrier and Jaguar, but I wimped out and did a couple of other things instead.  At one point I remembered I'd base coated a cheap as chips F-15 a while back and it might be a good tester to see how badly I sucked at using my airbrush.

This is the result:

Looks quite good a 3" - just don't look too closely!  A really cheap and dodgy model, I have no idea of the brand, but if I did I'd say avoid it like the plague!  I have a taller perspex rod to display it on the table at a higher altitude, but it was too tall for the photo, so I replaced it with a shorter one.

So my first NATO CAP marker is complete.  Now I just need to complete the RAF, Luftwaffe and Soviet CAP models, then the interdiction models, then the actual on table models.....  LOts of planes needed!

Have fun

Richard

Academy MiG-27 Flogger-D

OK - so I finally got around to taking more photos - so this will more another series of updates over the next few days - starting with today.

First up - as promised - some Soviet airpower - in the form of a 1/72 scale Academy MiG-27 Flogger-D.  This is a kit I made a long time ago (and I'm too embarrassed to go back and have a look when) and whilst it went together very well, I was really unhappy with the way I air-brush painted it - and then to make matters worse I completely (or almost completely) stuffed it up when slapping on a coat of Pledge One-Go.

So the Flogger disappeared into a drawer - I had come pretty close to simply chucking it out, but the miser in me won out - until recently I plucked up the courage to try and finish it once and for all.

I totally gave up on re-airbrushing it, and went back to (hopefully) thinned paint and a good-old brush.

So this is how it ended up:

Not too bad on my only finished flying base...

So - there's my first proper functioning airpower - I guess it's not too shabby...

Thanks for looking

Richard