1/48 Pfalz D. XII

 The mojo for painting little metal men is still on long term leave but I hope to return to them shortly. Steve's surplus kits continue to provide useful distractions, an outlet for building things and painting big blocks of colour. This 1/48 Pfalz D. XII is a Blue Max kit. I bought some lozenge decals for the wings as these were not provided with the kit. A remarkably colourful aeroplane when complete. The photos are taken on the workbench rather than in the lightbox as it is not currently set up. 

1/48 Royal Aircraft Factory RE.8 "Harry Tate".

As a consequence of my friend Steve's clear-out a few weeks ago, I was very pleased to come into the possession of an Aeroclub 1/48 kit of a RE.8. An out of production kit dating from the 1990s. I have been on the lookout for one of these for quite a few years but when they cropped up in eBay or on websites dealing with "vintage" and out of production kits they were selling for silly money. Too pricey for what I wanted to do with it - create a gaming piece that would buzz above the wargaming table. During all that time, Steve had one in his "black hole". This beauty, equipped with a radio transmitter, will circle the table spotting the fall of shot from 96 Heavy Artillery Group. Time to get hold of some pilots from Copplestone Castings.

WW1 Leyland 3-ton Lorries, a big gun and a Hannover CL IIIa

 The mojo for painting little metal men has taken long term leave but over the past month the time at the table has been dedicated to "equipments". Earlier in the summer I obtained these two 1/56 scale 3D resin printed models of WW1 Leyland 3-ton lorries from David Freemantle in Australia. Splendid stuff. I also assembled and painted up a 5 inch gun on an obsolete 40pdr gun carriage from Actual Size Miniatures. The dial sight came from my bits-box. I was pleased to get this model as this gun was used in Mesopotamia. There is a photograph of such a gun mounted in the bows of a river lighter that has been converted into an improvised powered gunboat. I will now be able to think about building the powered lighter. My friend Steve, in a moment of madness, had a clear-out and as a consequence of his episode a number of 1/48 aircraft kits are now sitting in in my "to build" pile. Here is the first, a Hannover Cl IIIa. This kit caused much swearing and getting the top wing fixed in place was a nightmare. Even now it is not central! There comes a time to cut your losses, say "bugger it" and crack on.