Glued Up Issue 4

Welcome to issue 4 of Glued Up, the last one prior to the AGM, and the penultimate prior to Scale ModelWorld.

To kick off the news from the industry, here's the box art for the new Revell 1/72 Lancaster , depicting HW-Z 'Grog's The Shot' of 100 Sqdn. I saw the test sprues in the USA last week at the IPMS Nationals. It's a beauty. Parts breakdown indicates that a Dambuster and big bomb versions will be on the way. The real joy is that it will retail for around £15, half the price of the Hasegawa item.

Eduard's Bf110E was on sale inadvance of its official release date. Had I space in my bag I might have taken advantage of their double purchase offer of $75 for two kits. As it transpired I had to FedEx all my purchases of classic kits together with the ADH product samples at a princely $287. Thankfully others were paying. Steal of the show? A Hasegawa 'Post War' Lanc at $25 (about £14 in proper money), plus an original Airfix Fairey Battle at $3.

Here are a few pix from the US IPMS Nationals

A picture message from your outgoing chairman

James and I attended a somewhat lacklustre Flying Legends in July. This picture shows him breakfasting alfresco, with one BLT sandwich to the good.

Which brings us neatly on to some important dates for your diary:
Sept 11 th - Club night
Sept 15/16 th - eDay, Galerie Budevice, Prague , Czech Republic (all shopping requests to me on Sept 11 th please)
Sept 25 th - Annual General Meeting. This is your chance to have your say on how you would like the club to be run for the next year. It is also your chance to vote for those whom you believe can best do the job. With an exhibition planned for next year and many more events and club socials to be planned it is vital that everyone attends. Several posts are up for grabs including Chairman and Treasurer, and there is nothing to stop anyone mounting a challenge for other posts that may have been held by one person for a long time. I shan't take offence if someone wants the publicity officer's job!
September 30 th - IPMS Brampton Show
October 9 th - Club night
October 23 rd - Club night
November 10/11 th - Scale ModelWorld, Telford

Retail news  

Airfix products are starting to make their way into Goldings, including a fleet of RNLI Lifeboats, early Spitfire Mk 1's and diorama sets, together with some core catalogue items. Andy Horton reports that the Hobbycraft store in Milton Keynes is now awash with Dragon armour. As yet the much vaunted new Humbrol acrylics don't seem to have made it anywhere local so far.  

Day Trip to Hendon

(The most recent club outing was to the RAF Museum and Hannants. Dave Ross, who currently has a love affair with Fw190's, takes up the story.)

A dull but warm day greeted the small band of modellers and associated offspring at the BP Garage on the Bedford By-pass. Being the last to arrive a quick discussion ensued where it was agreed to travel in convoy, the route taking us past the Cardington hangars stopping at Hannants prior to going to the museum. We set off with me to lead the merry band; I turn off the bypass and meander through Cardington driving at a moderate pace to enable the others to catch up. No sign of any one I carry on. Having past the hangars and still no sign of anyone in the rear view a quick phone call found our convoy already separated with me having passed the hangers to the north whilst the rest went to the south on the A600. No problems though they would catch me up on the A1. Driving down the A1 at a moderate pace, as obviously my route is quicker, I constantly check behind me to see if anyone is catching up. I finally got someone in my sights at Boreham Wood. It was James yet some how he was in front not behind!!

Arriving at a destination in just over an hour we rushed into Hannants ready to spend, spend, and spend. One thing that is imperative is to go with a set purpose or have a list. Browsing is not the way to do it. There is too much choice for me to ever make a decision. Most people came out with a little of what you fancy. Tony and James certainly seemed to be on a mission to keep Hannants afloat for the next month or so.

Andy was Mark Peacock's personal shopper for the day and he excelled himself. Achieving to get almost nothing on Marks list. ( this was owing to a party of Germans who presumably having commandeered all the deckchairs in Hendon, launched an assault on Hannants-ed) This caused us much amusement.

After about an hour at the shops we descended on Hendon Museum itself.

Causing much consternation by not following the prescribed route - and going straight for a coffee (Anarchy is alive and well in the UK ). Although to be fair to all the really bad coffee in the world, to actually call this cup of insipid filthy water coffee would be an insult. My advice takes a flask.

Anyway onto the matter in hand.the aircraft museum. For all those that haven't been - go and for all those that have been - go again. What a superb time. The array of exhibits is first class with the majority of aircraft in good condition. Take your camera. Ensure you have lots of battery life so that, unlike me, after the third photo no shutter.. Oh well it's a good excuse to go again.

If your interest lies with early WW1 machines make sure you visit the Graham White Factory before 12.00pm when they shut this exhibit and open the B of B Hall. I would love to tell you what is in there but I can't but at least you have learnt from our mistake. I believe a Bristol MC1 (monoplane) resides there but I can't remember any other machines as we were only told about them by an enthusiastic guide, (I could almost smell the Castrol R ).

The aircraft on display throughout the halls range from Pioneer (Bleriot) through to some of the modern jets like the Tornado & Buccaneer.

The newest hall is light and airy and certainly displays the aircraft to very good advantage meaning good photos without flash and the inherent bounce-back problems. The hall features interactive screens and quizzes to give a wealth of information about the aircraft you are seeing.

Moving through to the old halls the difference in lighting is radical. The bomber hall is thoroughly dark in comparison to the new hall and flash photography is a must in here ¹, the main hall and Battle of Britain hall. The array of exhibits is astounding, B25, Lancaster, Vulcan & Wellington to name but a few.

Stepping into the main hall even more goodies await - Meteor, Phantom, Typhoon, P47 & Spitfires etc, etc. There are also two sub sections, helicopters and coastal command where you find rare beauties such as the Beaufighter & Beaufort. Within the main hall is the aeronauts exhibit, which helps explain the basic principles of flight in a fun doing stuff kind of way. The offspring got to wave, pull, push, throw and generally yank items about which obviously amused both us, and them. We came through relatively unscathed and without breaking anything and hence increasing the number of already non-operative models. This was a disappointment as the working items we got to try were great.

In the lobby of the old entrance is an 'amazing' 1/5 model of a Supermarine Spitfire (see hyperscale - http://hsfeatures.com/features04/spitfiremkidg_1.htm )

This is a must see. Please take a hanky or some tissues it may cause tears or some other bodily fluid to spontaneously leak out of your system.

The final destination was the Battle of Britain Hall. Here you will find Stuka, Me110, Spitfire Hurricane, Ju88, Boulton Paul Defiant & Sunderland Flying boat plus others. Need I say any more?

The array of exhibits is superb and certainly worth the hour and a bit drive from Bedford to visit.

All in it was a really good day. Next stop Cosford. Bring it on!

¹ Unless, like me, you have a large tripod! (now there's no need to be boastful-ed)

The Nightmare Psycho B*s*a*d Kit From Hell, or is it?
(our guest spot this issue is taken up by Steve Rickwood, the acceptable face of HM Customs and Revenue, who pleads the case for kits that are more Irish Stew than shake n' bake.)

We've all got one, haven't we? Merlin Models'' TSR-2, Accurate Armour Challenger, any vac form, to name but three. One kit that seems to have come in for a lot of criticism lately is the MPM/Italeri Lockheed Hudson. I know two people who have built it, or tried to, and read at least one uncomplimentary review, but is it really that bad?

Although structurally complete mine lacks a few bits, but I've seen one beautifully built and finished example "in the plastic" and one completed for review. Yes it takes more work to get to that stage than say a Hasegawa He111, but when you think about the amount of improving that you need to do to the aged AIrfix Hudson to get an equally acceptable result, not to mention the additional cost of Falcon transparencies and Aeroclub engines and dorsal turret, does the MPM/Italeri offering do so badly? It has buckets of interior detail, fine external panel lines, an accurate outline and a choice of five markings options.

Some modellers and reviewers have complained about the fit of parts, but I didn't need much in the way of filler on my example at all, but there are some fit issues. Some of the interior parts don't fit too well and the oil cooler intakes and ducts are a nightmare to get between engines and undercarriage bays. The engines themselves need trimming to fit within their cowlings, but this is pointed out in the instructions and anyone with a small file or a bit of wet'n'dry rolled abrasive side inwards should be able to deal with this.

Have we all become a little too used to Tamiya and Hasegawa standards? Maybe, but look at some of their offerings for a moment. The Hasegawa P-40, for example, is criticised for being over-engineered to allow as many different sub-types to be produced from one set of main moulds as possible. This leads to structural breaks on the model where there are none on the full-scale machine, and these require careful alignment and possibly filling and re-scribing later. You can't deny though that the finished model looks like what it says on the box, and so with the Hudson .

I took the Hudson on as a major improvement on the Airfix kit and found it a challenge, but isn't that what we need every so often; something that will stretch our skills and abilities, even slightly, or get us out of a rut of production line kit-assembling? Don't get me wrong, I like an easy to build kit as much as anyone else, or more so as there's a better chance that I'll finish it (you can stop laughing now Karl).

I know that the Hudson has had a mediocre press, but it's a kit with potential, a variety of interesting colour schemes and a wealth of weathering and detailing opportunity. If you get the chance try one, and maybe help to give a dog a better name.

Steve, thanks very much for an intelligent addition to the modellers versus assemblers debate. The main beef that the modelling press has had with this particular kit is that a mainstream manufacturer such as Italeri should not be boxing limited run products without some sort of skill warning. The MPM Hudson can really can only be tackled by modellers with experience such as yourself. By retailing the Hudson alongside their latest generation mainstream Do217 and SM79 kits they are doing themselves no favours, and run the risk of putting a newcomer or returning hobbyist right off kit construction for good.

Any new material to me before October 31 st . AND DON'T FORGET-

AGM 25th SEPTEMBER. Next club meeting 11 th September

(The ' Ask Uncle Alan' column has had to be postponed owing to a shortage of Bacardi, balsa and talcum powder.)