-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathaircraft.html
22 lines (15 loc) · 4.96 KB
/
aircraft.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
---
layout: build-collection
icon_small: "https://combo.staticflickr.com/pw/images/collection_default_s.gif"
id: "198063996-72157721726619581"
label: aircraft
title: "Aircraft"
---
In 1962, out of the blue, my father brought home a Lincoln 1/121 scale kit of a Vickers Viscount and proceeded to build it while my brother and I looked on. He had just returned from a flight to Wellington on an NAC Viscount and must have been impressed with the aircraft. He seemed to enjoy building the model – it looked like fun and I must have made a mental note of that. Later that year, Dad got me started in ship modelling and for the next 4 years until mid 1966, I was solely a ship modeler.
In 1969, after a 3 year hiatus from modeling, I brought a series of small aircraft (and armour) models from a local stationery shop on my way home from school. I needed some light entertainment during a difficult period during my last year at school and building these kits did the job. The four aircraft kits were my first direct involvement in aircraft modeling. They were all 1/100 scale, very cheap and were sold under the RSL Classic label, though were actually Marusan toolings from 1963-64. The subjects were F-84F, F-105, Yak-9P and X-15. They were simple, with prominent raised surface details and I just assembled and painted them without modification, not even to fill wingroots. I enjoyed the process though.
The following year, 1970, I started Uni and had access to modelshops in the city. I started collecting and building 1/72 scale aircraft, starting with bagged Airfix kits of a Mustang and then a Spitfire. I took more effort with my painting with these as I had started using Humbrol authentic colours (enamels). The same year I also started 2 ex-FROG kits marketed in NZ by Triang – an F-86E (Model 43) and a Canberra (Model 49). These were original FROG toolings from 1955, the dawn of the plastic modeling hobby. The kits were awful but they were cheap. I took my time and made improvements, removing excess rivet detail and adding cockpit interiors. When I got my first airbrush (a Thayer & Chandler) in 1974, I airbrushed the natural metal finishes on them, eventually completing them in 1975 and 1980 respectively. In 1971 I started a third ex-FROG kit, a 1/96 scale Handley-Page Victor (Model 56), my favourite of the V-Bombers. I finished that in 1986. None of these models have survived to the present day.
During the period 1970 to 1973, I built up a collection of 40 other 1/72 kits. I sold 30 of them unbuilt before I left for Australia in 1979-80, the first in a series of collection purges. The remaining 10 kits got sold in subsequent purges – none got built.
I didn’t start any more aircraft models for 10 years until 1981. At this time I also re-started collecting kits, this time in 1/144, 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32. During my time in Australia in the 1980s I started nine new aircraft projects, some of them as joint projects with my young son. Unfortunately, I had very little time available for modeling and none of them got finished until 1990-91 after I had returned to New Zealand, when I finished four of them. I abandoned the other five projects. The four that I did finish were rushed jobs and I was never very happy with the outcomes (Models 60, 66, 70, 71). I think poor kit selection was a big part of the problem. However, as a consequence, I lost interest in aircraft modeling and even stopped collecting the kits. Then between 1995 and 2000, I had a massive purge of my unbuilt kit collection and sold off 140 aircraft kits, on top of 33 or so I had previously sold during the mid-late 1980s and the 30 mentioned above in 1979-80. By 2001 there were only 14 aircraft kits left and it looked like my aircraft modeling days were over.
Fifteen years later, in 2006, I rediscovered my interest in aircraft modelling during a trip to Melbourne when I also visited the modelshops. As soon as I returned I really got stuck in and just focussed on building aircraft models. I built 13 of them during a 21 month period of 100% focus on aircraft. All but two of them are to 1/72 scale. I learned a lot about aircraft modeling during this time. My favourites are the TS-11 Iskra (Model 121), Ki-83 (Model 126), Yak-9U (Model 127) and the Sea Vixen (Model 130). Since that time, my unbuilt collection has continued to grow. There have been no further purges.
Six years on, in 2014, I decided to create a nostalgia collection of new models to constant 1/144 scale covering all the old subjects I had built between 1969 to 1986. I ended up completing 14 aircraft models in 2014 and the cabinet space for that scale is now full. The pick of these models is probably the BEA Viscount 700 (Model 167), though, the Spitfire Mk.IX (Model 160), the resin HP Victor (Model 165) and my first vacform, a Supermarine Scimitar (Model 169) are also favourites.
Since 2014, I have built a further two 1/72 aircraft (Models 190 & 191) in 2017 and have a third one, an Airfix F2H-2P Banshee I bought in 1981, started but on hold at the time of writing.