Hello!

So here is the Scale Model Hangars production output in what was a lousy year for all of us! You can find build articles for most of the completed models here on the site if you want to see more of them. In the meantime, sit back, relax, enjoy and join me in musing about models……

January saw me continuing my foray into diorama making with the very old 1/35 Revell LVT-A1.

This kit was one I had wanted to build myself for many years, when I did finally find this kit with these markings I soon discovered to my cost that the decals were useless and broke apart when being used!

I managed to get the job done with decals from the spares box and some home made masks. I wanted to display it in context to its in theatre environment, so I posed the model with some converted figures on a beach in the Pacific.  

 

There was a big gap between January and May due to my ill health but I came back big with a truly big fun build! Tamiya’s 1/48 P-47M Thunderbolt in the colours of the USAAF 63rd Fighter Squadron. This was the Hot Rod ride of WWII!

This Tamiya kit is a pure joy to build and the unusual colour scheme made it a very interesting subject. The challenge with this kit was balancing the elements of the Natural Metal Finish, mixing the Two Tone Blue camouflage paint to represent a historically accurate model and then not going too crazy with the weathering.

 

In July I rolled out my 2020 version of the Blue Thunder helicopter, this far east copy of the Monogram kit is truly awful and I was challenged by another modeller to build it as it was by all accounts “unbuildable”

Well, OK, not my best work, but a point proved. If you put the work in, you can build it and finish it.

 

In September I turned out Eduard’s F5F Hellcat in a really cool paint scheme, orange and red! This Eduard model is a breeze to build and fits together beautifully! The aftermarket markings screamed for this model to be built and I had a lot of fun experimenting with the painting and weathering. I posed this aircraft as coming to the end of its life on the flight line with two ground crew reminiscing about the Hellcat’s glory days from the Second world War.

In October I completed a big project as part one of my US Navy Vietnam War trilogy: Good Morning Da Nang!

This Academy 1/48 F-4B Phantom II is a modern tooling of a much loved aircraft and in the markings of VF-111 “Sundowners” looks utterly beautiful! My model was further enhanced with converted figures, deck equipment and presented on a custom display base. It was a fantastic project to build!

Following on in October another US Navy legend, the Vought Corsair-This version, the F4U-1A was built from the classic Tamiya kit. This project was an experiment in painting and weathering, I used Mig Ammo acrylic paints and tried some new weathering idea’s on this one.

Also a another commission turned up, this 1/24 custom build of the Batpod bike from the Dark Knight movie was completed for my good friend Jo who is a huge fan of the film franchise. The base kit and figure are from Moebius both of which I modified and converted into a more dramatic pose.

November brought us something special, my 1/48 Hasegawa Grumman F-14B Tomcat in the markings of the World Famous Pukin Dogs! This build has been on my bucket list for years and was a real journey learning new painting techniques with layering and marbling and new weathering idea’s with post shading and pencils being employed in a new way. The build article goes into more detail about these processes, so check it out if you want to see this one coming together. Again huge thanks go out to veteran Pukin Dog Tomcat Driver Jon Shoemaker and to master craftsman Paul Thompson for their generous help with this dream build.

November also saw me being interviewed by web magazine Scalemodel.zone , it was a great experience and a lot of fun to do.

You can read it here:  https://scalemodel.zone/the-world-needs-it/

The last finished build of 2020 was part two of my US Navy Vietnam War trilogy, this one being              Tamiya’s 1/48 A-1H Skyraider. I haven’t written a build article for this one yet, but wanted to share it with you as it turned out pretty nice! This one was built as the famous VA-25 toilet bomb dropper as I thought it would make a welcome change from the usual schemes……….

 

 

So that’s a wrap for 2020! I hope you have enjoyed this look back at my year on the bench. I still have other projects in the works, two long term commission builds currently dominate my studio time, a 1/32 Battle of Britain Hawker Hurricane Mk.I which is now in the weathering stage…….

And other BIG project is Tamiya’s 1/32 scale F-15E strike eagle, currently in the painting stage………

So there was a glimpse of whats to come in 2021-I hope you all have a very safe, successful Happy New Year!

All the best and Happy Modelling!

Darren.