Revell Lancaster BI/BIII 1:72

Revell Lancaster BI/BIII 1:72

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dr_gn

16,130 posts

183 months

Friday 20th August 2010
quotequote all
Yertis said:
dr_gn said:
Evangelion said:
Sorry Eric, you're a little off the mark with the old Revell Lancaster ... it came out as a Dam Buster FIRST in about 1963/64. The standard version followed in 1966, one of the options on the decal sheet being PO-S which stood as the 'gate guardian' outside RAF Scampton for many years.

The Airfix is the other way round, first came out in standard form in 1980 then as a Dam Buster about 10 years later.

Didn't realise the new Revell one was now available as a Dam Buster, will have to look for that. I did buy the standard one when it first came out but am building it as a very early Mk 1 as I donated the turret fairing to a friend who badly needed one.
The "Dam Buster" version was one of the first models I built in about 1975. I built 2 of the standard Revell ones too at various times. Still got the remains on one built in about 1980 hanging in the garage:



Happy days...
I'm off down to Mum's house in a minute. I'll pick up a couple of my 1980 vintage efforts for you to see. I've got about 75 of them in the loft, all built between 1977 and 1980, when I packed in modelling for rock music and theoretical girlfriends. idea Actually, easier to take the camera and photograph them there, I don't think they'll ride well in the back of a Monaro.
Good idea. All mine are shoved in a drawer. I might take a few pictures for nostalgia and then bin them.


perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Friday 20th August 2010
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Yertis said:
dr_gn said:
Evangelion said:
Sorry Eric, you're a little off the mark with the old Revell Lancaster ... it came out as a Dam Buster FIRST in about 1963/64. The standard version followed in 1966, one of the options on the decal sheet being PO-S which stood as the 'gate guardian' outside RAF Scampton for many years.

The Airfix is the other way round, first came out in standard form in 1980 then as a Dam Buster about 10 years later.

Didn't realise the new Revell one was now available as a Dam Buster, will have to look for that. I did buy the standard one when it first came out but am building it as a very early Mk 1 as I donated the turret fairing to a friend who badly needed one.
The "Dam Buster" version was one of the first models I built in about 1975. I built 2 of the standard Revell ones too at various times. Still got the remains on one built in about 1980 hanging in the garage:



Happy days...
I'm off down to Mum's house in a minute. I'll pick up a couple of my 1980 vintage efforts for you to see. I've got about 75 of them in the loft, all built between 1977 and 1980, when I packed in modelling for rock music and theoretical girlfriends. idea Actually, easier to take the camera and photograph them there, I don't think they'll ride well in the back of a Monaro.
Good idea. All mine are shoved in a drawer. I might take a few pictures for nostalgia and then bin them.
THIS do this

I binned all of mine without even taking pictures, not even my Sherpa scratch build

And the C47 and Chinook part finisheds

And the

and

and

please do take pictures

The only ones of mine left after 25 years of modelling are in Cosford

And a coal waggon and horse and delivery cart I scratch built in 1/35 scale that need repairs and the narrow boat dio

dr_gn

16,130 posts

183 months

Friday 20th August 2010
quotequote all
perdu said:
dr_gn said:
Yertis said:
dr_gn said:
Evangelion said:
Sorry Eric, you're a little off the mark with the old Revell Lancaster ... it came out as a Dam Buster FIRST in about 1963/64. The standard version followed in 1966, one of the options on the decal sheet being PO-S which stood as the 'gate guardian' outside RAF Scampton for many years.

The Airfix is the other way round, first came out in standard form in 1980 then as a Dam Buster about 10 years later.

Didn't realise the new Revell one was now available as a Dam Buster, will have to look for that. I did buy the standard one when it first came out but am building it as a very early Mk 1 as I donated the turret fairing to a friend who badly needed one.
The "Dam Buster" version was one of the first models I built in about 1975. I built 2 of the standard Revell ones too at various times. Still got the remains on one built in about 1980 hanging in the garage:



Happy days...
I'm off down to Mum's house in a minute. I'll pick up a couple of my 1980 vintage efforts for you to see. I've got about 75 of them in the loft, all built between 1977 and 1980, when I packed in modelling for rock music and theoretical girlfriends. idea Actually, easier to take the camera and photograph them there, I don't think they'll ride well in the back of a Monaro.
Good idea. All mine are shoved in a drawer. I might take a few pictures for nostalgia and then bin them.
THIS do this

I binned all of mine without even taking pictures, not even my Sherpa scratch build

And the C47 and Chinook part finisheds

And the

and

and

please do take pictures

The only ones of mine left after 25 years of modelling are in Cosford

And a coal waggon and horse and delivery cart I scratch built in 1/35 scale that need repairs and the narrow boat dio
Ah well! Good reason to start again...

I didn't mean take individual pictures, just of them all...in a drawer.

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Friday 20th August 2010
quotequote all
Oi you!

behave...

smile

but do do it

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
Oi you!

behave...

smile

but do do it

dr_gn

16,130 posts

183 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
perdu said:
Oi you!

behave...

smile

but do do it
You know what...there must be about 40 aircraft and about the same number of AFV's and cars of all scales...as well as Star Wars stuff. I don't really have the heart to sling them, but then again they are pertty useless and take up a lot of room. I'm considering putting them one by one into a blender and reducing the whole lot to tiny fragments and...doing something with the fragments. Trouble is I don't know what.

Maybe throw them away...biggrin

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
perdu said:
Oi you!

behave...

smile

but do do it
You know what...there must be about 40 aircraft and about the same number of AFV's and cars of all scales...as well as Star Wars stuff. I don't really have the heart to sling them, but then again they are pertty useless and take up a lot of room. I'm considering putting them one by one into a blender and reducing the whole lot to tiny fragments and...doing something with the fragments. Trouble is I don't know what.

Maybe throw them away...biggrin
I ws there

same simple decision

it had been about fifteen/twenty years since I made a model...

I made a decision firm and solid


I shouldn't have

somewhere in a landfill near Walsall there are lots of models buried

never mind only three hundred years until some of them rot away... smile

Yertis

18,011 posts

265 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
Right, just back from Mum's.

There's quite a lot up there in the loft. I started to count them, but apart from these crates there are loads in shoe boxes and biscuit tins, so I stopped at around 50. Mum is under the impression the models represent some sort of fire hazard and is pushing for their destruction, but they're out of her reach.






I didn't have time to photograph all of them so I chose a sample based on chronology and quality, and condition.

First up, Airfix 1/24 P51D. Now this wasn't made by me, but by my father whose day job was making bits of undercarriage for real aeroplanes. What's "interesting" about this particular model is that it was made in the summer of 1973 (or maybe 1974?), but either way when the kit had not long been released. The kit was an Easter present to me from my Gran, and I didn't trust myself to make it well enough. I tried to photograph it on it's undercarriage, but that snapped instantly so here it is perched on a glass. I need one of those ace stands like Dr_Gn has for his rebuilt Matchbox Spit 24, then I could have it on my desk.




Interesting how it looks weathered. It isn't of course, Dad built his models pristine. It's just tatty and faded.

Now for my efforts. This is like a confessional – I'll admit to being a completely obsessive modeller from the age of about 8 until I was 15. Either aeroplanes or model railways. I made planes in three phases – between 8 and 9, 11 and 12, and 14 and 15. In between I had model railway fun, and then I discovered rock music, girls and then sportscars. None of my early plastic aircraft have survived so these are all from the 11 to 15 period.
First up, I think this is one of the oldest, made in about 1977. Airfix Hampden and Blenheim. (By the way sorry about the image quality, I've got a new camera and cocked up the ISO.) As you can see I'd yet to discover the delights of the airbrush, laquers and Microsol. I liked WW2 bombers and tried to build a model of each type, which, apart fromoddities like the Warwick and Albemarle, I almost did before getting stumped by inability to find a Baltimore. The Lancaster, Halifax and Stirling et al have long gone.




This FROG P51A is from about the same period.



What I liked about FROG is that they made some odd aeroplanes that no one else made, qv the Whitley in one of the crate pics above and the Arado 234, which I photographed in situ.

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The Matchbox Hurricane IIB was one of my first efforts at weathering. Matchbox kits were sold in the village sweetshop, so I made quite a few of them. The Matchbox models have proven much more durable than the Hasegawa models I made later BTW, in the same way British classic cars last better than their Japanese contemporaries.

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Then I had a break and fiddled around with N gauge railways for a bit, learning about wiring, before being seduced once again by the scent of Britfix, Humbrol enamel and white spirit. By this time the RAF had started using the airspace over our house as a low-level route, so I started making jets. Also,I bought my first airbrush, a Humbrol thing. It was quite crap but cheap and slightly better than a brush. To propel it Dad bought home an enormous two-phase compressor from work that made all the lights go dim when I sparked it up. The next few were made in about 1978.

Here's my first airbrushed model, an Airfix MRCA. I can't remember which prototype this was, but I got all the markings from a magazine.



I loved MRCAs, still do as a matter of fact. I won a junior prize in a model competition with this model of another pre-production Tornado, as it was by this time called. It's the very poor ESCI kit, which needed a ton of work to make fit, but which was at the time the biggest Tornado you could get. This was the first prototype with wraparound camo, used for weapons trials or something I think.



Also I did this Italerie 1/72 Tornado, I think it was the second German prototype. The Italerie kit had a strange rough surface finish.



This one is a bit of an oddity. It's the Lindberg Victor, which I tried to make into a KC2. I made another one just like this for the loacal ATC squadron, who need one to present to 57 Squadron for some reason.



Christmas 1978 and I chopped in the Humbrol airbrush for a DeVilbiss Sprite, which was gravity feed and apart from a few plastic bits was pretty much identical to the iconic DeVilbiss Aerograph. I owe a huge debt to that airbrush, because I owe it my whole career.

1979 and its a Matchbox Buccaneer. This or the Hasegawa Flogger below were the last ones I made before I started using Microscale chemicals, at this point I was cutting tight around the decals.





That was the second Hasegawa kit I made (I'd completed a MiG25 a while before) and the standard of detail and fit were a revelation. But they were hard to get hold of in rural Dorset. I subsequently bought a set of Microscale F14 decals. It contained marking for three squadrons, so I blew all my savings on three Hasegawa F14s. I never finished them, and threw them away about ten years ago.

Jaguars. The Airfix GR1 is I think straight out the box but with ModelDecal insignia (14 squadron?). The T2 is a FROG nose grafted onto an Airfix fuselage,





The end, May 1979. The last three or four I made were an Airfix Harrier converted to GR3 spec by grafting a cluster bomb onto the nose and sanding it to shape, a Puma, and this Matchbox F4M. Sorry the canopies have been broken off, but I still have them and may resurrect the model to sit in my office here. It's a 29 Squadron aircraft which I actually sat in at Coningsby during an ATC camp.



The Puma was the last one, but like all helicopter models it's faired badly in storage. When I finished it I packed away my modelling kit, got on my bike and went for a ride.

dr_gn

16,130 posts

183 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
Wooooow. I recognise a few of those! Nice collection, but...what to do with them?

I can make you a stand for the Mustang no problem. You'll have to make your own perspex mount though (unless you can tell me the dimensions of a template to locate in something solid on the underside of the model).

I've got a pic of me sitting in a Coningsby Phantom here on my bench. 25 July 1981 is the date on the back. The yellow "RESCUE" decal is in exactly the right place!

Is that a Dinky Coles crane I see tucked away in a box? I'm trying to restore one at the moment, but can't find any of the hydraulic jib jacks. Is it complete/for sale??

Eric Mc

121,680 posts

264 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
Nice antique collection. Reminds me of my earlier modelling "career".

FROG did a Baltimore - and a Maryland.

Yertis

18,011 posts

265 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Is that a Dinky Coles crane I see tucked away in a box? I'm trying to restore one at the moment, but can't find any of the hydraulic jib jacks. Is it complete/for sale??
Yes it is a Coles crane but you knew that anyway smile. Quite complete and good condition. I hadn't thought of selling it. It's next to a Batmobile and Batboat combo, also in good condition.


perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Saturday 21st August 2010
quotequote all
that is so like my own modelling history, 'cept dad refused to make any models for my brother or I

Just stood behind us chuntering ( I do miss his chuntering)
telling us tales of the aircraft he flew in during six years of war.

I never got round to Whitleys or Hampdens, but as an armourer he'd be sure to have had some input smile

Considering how long they've lain fallow they are very good and wouldnt take much to ressurrect many of them (Mustang, I do like the P51A, dad of course had a story...)

And like you I have been a fan of Tornado in all her incarnations

thanks for sharing these images

I really do wish I'd at least taken photographs

Red Firecracker

5,276 posts

226 months

Sunday 22nd August 2010
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Is that a Dinky Coles crane I see tucked away in a box? I'm trying to restore one at the moment, but can't find any of the hydraulic jib jacks. Is it complete/for sale??
They're not available as a spare (as you've discovered) so the best source if those is to get a donor model from somewhere such as eBay.

Ones to look for are the Dinky 967, 973 (slightly different), 977 and 984.

I've also got the artwork for the decals if you require it. I'll have a look in my stock later as I may have a 973 in bits and incomplete that I can whip a ram off.



Yertis

18,011 posts

265 months

Sunday 22nd August 2010
quotequote all
We've actually got two Coles cranes. My brother's is a bit more playworn and might be for sale, I'll ask him. I've also got a Dinky Jones Fleetmaster crane ripe for restoration, all present but tatty paint.

Foden Army truck anyone? From about 1977. I've got one in it's box that wouldn't shift from eBay. In the charity shop pile at the moment but I'd be much happier it went to someone who cares for these things.

dr_gn

16,130 posts

183 months

Sunday 22nd August 2010
quotequote all
Red Firecracker said:
dr_gn said:
Is that a Dinky Coles crane I see tucked away in a box? I'm trying to restore one at the moment, but can't find any of the hydraulic jib jacks. Is it complete/for sale??
They're not available as a spare (as you've discovered) so the best source if those is to get a donor model from somewhere such as eBay.

Ones to look for are the Dinky 967, 973 (slightly different), 977 and 984.

I've also got the artwork for the decals if you require it. I'll have a look in my stock later as I may have a 973 in bits and incomplete that I can whip a ram off.
That's right...basicaly my Dad was given one in bad condition, and he wanted to restore it for my 3 year old son who's into cranes this month. Having looked at the EBay prices of them (in excellent contidion) I thought it's simply not worth restoring - unless of course someone had a knackered one with the bits we needed. Even then, the time involved probably wouldn't justify the end result. Not that common sense has ever influenced my decisions to restore things in the past...

I suppose I could make the missing cylinder in the lathe - it's only a bit of black ABS with a split pin in it IIRC.

BTW - Your pal supplied a repro box for my Dad's Dinky sports cars. Two week waiting time normally, but he did it almost the same day to get it to my Dad in time for his 80th birthday yesterday! My Dad is absolutely chuffed to bits with it - it is fantastic quality, far better than the Racing Car set lid I got for him a few years ago. So thanks a lot for your help there!

Edited by dr_gn on Sunday 22 August 10:18

SlipStream77

2,153 posts

190 months

Sunday 22nd August 2010
quotequote all
Thanks for posting the photos Yertis, that's a super collection of really well finished models.

Nice to see the Jaguars, I'm working on one at the moment.

Yertis

18,011 posts

265 months

Sunday 22nd August 2010
quotequote all
Thanks. I'm quite proud of the later ones like the F4, bearing in mind I was only about 14 or 15 when I made them. There are some big Hasegawa 1/32 jets up there too but I couldn't get to them.

My career doing identities owes alot to studying aircraft insignia, even that little cross smilies piston thingy top left, apart from the obvious jolly roger reference owes a little bit to a Vietnam era F4E called "The Wreckin' Crew" that I started but failed to finish.