Railway Workshops (Newport)

 

Tamiya 1/48 Mig-15 bis

 

Some 15-20 years ago, a member of my local modelling club gifted his entire book and model collection to the club, which then held a special sale to dispose of it all, with the proceeds from this being retained by the club.

However, at the end of the day a few unsold items still remained and one of these was a Tamiya boxing of the Mig-15, which I was handed for helping out and gratefully accepted. However, it wasn't until I got home that I discovered the box contained not one, but three partially constructed Mig-15's as well as a multitude of resin and etch parts. Not knowing what to do with all at the time, I then just decided to put it in my stash and promptly forgot about it.

Some years later a friend of mine gave me a copy of the Midlands Publishing book on the Mig-15, which contained a photo of a North Korean Mig that had suffered combat damage during an attack on B-29's and was then parked up on the airfield with its wings and tailplane removed. This suddenly reminded me of the box siting in my stash and I decided it would be a good project to undertake rather than just building a whole bunch of standard Mig-15's.

My first task was to choose the best resin cockpit and ejection seat and to these I added a Quinta Studios 3D cockpit placard and seatbelt set (QD48160). With the interior finished and fuselage assembled I then had to rebuild the wing root areas - adding panels, spars and hydraulic lines - the upper fin area and also create the combat damage. I then had to take measurements and create a drawing of the fuselage dolly, which I used as a cutting and assembly guide. The dolly's were made from styrene rod and strip and proved to be surprisingly strong, with the wheels being a set of resin ones that I also found in the kit.

With assembly complete and the model masked, it was then primed with Gunze Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black, which is an excellent base for a silver finish. The model was then sprayed with Tamiya Silver Leaf (TS-30), the speed brakes with AK Extreme Metal Dark Aluminium (AK 480) and the nose with Gunze Mr.Color Red FS11136 (327). Once dry the model was then sprayed with a coat of Gunze Mr.Hobby Mr.Super Clear UV Cut Gloss.

Unfortunately, other than the Korean roundels I didn't have the correct nose codes, but a Google search revealed that the Bronco Mig-15 had these on their decal sheet. So I put out a request on a number of Facebook pages and was duly rewarded for my efforts thanks to a fellow modeller, who came threw with the goods. The decals were then applied, the panel lines given a light grey wash and some minor weathering added to highlight a few panels. With that done the model was then sprayed with an overall coat of Gunze Mr.Hobby Mr.Super Clear Semi-Gloss.

This proved to be both a challenging and fun project and a unique way to present a model of the well known Mig-15 in a different light.

Tyabb Airshow

Minicraft 1/144 Boeing 377 'Stratocruiser'

Although not a modern kit by today's standards, I choose to build it as I wanted to do something different from my usual subject matter and I was also drawn to it kits by its more striking Northwest Orient Airlines colour scheme.

 

The kits assembly was very simple and straightforward, but I knew I would need to add a considerable amount of weight to the nose if it wasn't to be a tail sitter. Despite my best efforts though, as I was concerned about the undercarriages ability to carry any significant weight, my model still ended up being a tail sitter and required a tail prop to be added to support it.

 

With the model assembled, sanded and rescribed where necessary, the top half of the fuselage, fin and wing tips were then spray with several coats of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer White. The fin and wing tips were then masked and sprayed with Gunze Mr Color Red Madder (C68). Once these areas were dry, they were then masked and the rest of the model sprayed with Mr Finishing Surface Primer 1500 Black. The lower fuselage, wings and tailplanes were then sprayed with a combination of AK Extreme Metal Aluminium (AK479) and Dark Aluminium (AK480).

 

With the painting finished and masking removed the model was then given an all over gloss coat of Mr Super Clear UV Cut Gloss in preparation for the decals. As I wanted to depict a specific aircraft I choose not to use the kit decals and instead purchased a sheet of Flying Colors decals (FC44-020), which were far more comprehensive. The decals went on without any fuss using Micro Set and Sol and once dry, were sealed in with a second coat of Mr Super Clear UV Cut Gloss.

 

It was then just a matter of adding the undercarriage, which I'd reinforced with metal pins, and propellers and with that done the model was finished.