Airfix 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury

Work is progressing pretty rapidly on the kit with no real issues apart from the fit of the outer wings as the gaps are pretty big but I'll deal with that tomorrow.
I was going to have the wings folded but although the detail is reasonable on the Airfix parts, they need some extra work and I don't have the time or inclination as I will get bogged down and it will kill the interest in the model.

The engine and spinner are from Barracuda Cast and the cowling is by Aerocraft in case you were wondering as the Airfix cowling has a couple of issues.

Airfix 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury

Yet another kit has found its way onto the bench as I'm keeping myself busy while I'm furloughed, this time it is the Airfix 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury and an aircraft I have been wanting to build for a long time.
There are other 1/48 Sea Furies available but they all have lots of issues so when Airfix released theirs a year or so ago I grabbed one and now seems a good time to start it.
So far I am just about to close up the fuselage. I used a Barracuda resin cockpit as the Airfix cockpit is OK but they missed out the gun sight and floor-mounted cockpit however as the cockpit colour is black, once the fuselage is joined together you won't see much of it anyway.

Hobbyboss 1/35 ZBD-05 Amphibious IFV

Construction of the hull is done so only the turret is left to put together and then the build is done. It has been relatively painless so far except for the etched headlight guards which were a complete pain in the arse to put together.

Looking at pictures of the real vehicle there is no easy way to do these as they are quite delicate, however the four horizontal bars on each light guard needed trimming until they fitted and were superglued into place after a lot of bad language. The shape and height of the guard makes the assembly very flimsy too with only one positive location point on the side of the hull so gluing the other side to the top of the hull is a bit hit and miss;

Hopefully they won't look that bad under a coat of paint. While finishing up the hull I decided to replace a couple of the moulded on grab handles with ones made from copper wire and glued them at an angle rather than flat;

 Apart from tow cables that's the hull built so I will get on with the turret shortly.

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

I recently purchased a Miniart set of Italian tank crew as I have an idea for a diorama at some point so for the past couple of evenings I've been assembling and painting one of the figures. The Miniart set is pretty good although there was a bit of flash and some heavy seam lines to remove first but after clean up and under a coat of Games Workshop Chaos Black it looked pretty good. Before it was undercoated I drilled a hole in the figures' mouth and added some sprue to represent a cigarette.
It's been a while since I painted a 1/35 figure but I quite enjoyed it, the figure also gives the tankette some scale and shows just how small it was. The figure was painted with Vallejo acrylics throughout, I used to use oil paints for flesh areas but tend to use acrylics more nowadays.

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette finished

I managed to finish the model last night but I have an idea for a small diorama so that explains the unpainted figure, anyway that was a lovely little kit and it went together very well. My only gripe was that the wrong clear sprue was included so I had to drop some watchmakers cement into the headlights to represent lenses but that's about it.
The amount of detail included for such a small model is pretty impressive and just needed some extra bits for the interior making from scratch. The fit of parts was really good including the tracks as being link and length they can go very wrong sometimes and you have to try and 'stretch' them to get them to join up.
Altogether an impressive little model and I really enjoyed building it.

Airfix 1/48 Tiger Moth finished

Well after the self inflicted problems I had the model is finally finished. That was a very enjoyable build and a really good kit. Some aspects have been simplified such as the cockpit, the rudder control bar that protrudes through the cockpit sides etc but it really is a good base for extra detailing.
I chose a different scheme to that provided in the kit and the models represents Tiger Moth 85873 'T-2' of Belgisch Militaire Vliegwezen/Aviation Militaire Belge based at Goetsenhoven, Belgium during the 1950's. Decals came from a Hannants Xtradecals sheet X48207 de Havilland Tiger Moth Pt3 Overseas Operators.

Hobbyboss 1/35 ZBD-05 Amphibious IFV

Work is progressing quite nicely with the hull having the last bits fitted before assembling the turret.
The hydraulically operated bow is a pretty good fit but if you are going to display the model with it opened you need to fill all the mould-pin marks on the inside faces. If (like me) you are going to keep it closed then don't bother with all the cylinders as you won't see them and it will save a few hours construction time.
I'll glue the lower bow plate to the hull as the four pins that secure it are tiny and will not stand any stress putting on them, however to aid painting the upper plate will be left moveable.

Hobbyboss 1/35 ZBD-05 amphibious IFV

I made a start on this about three or four years ago and although it has two very pretty camo schemes, I soon lost interest due to the amount of track links it required and it got shoved back into the stash.
I was recently having a sort out of what kits to dispose of and this was due to go either on Ebay or to landfill but after seeing those camo schemes and having time on my hands I decided to build it.
The biggest job is the track links and these took the best part of two evenings to remove them from the sprues, trim the sprue attachment points, glue the guide horns on each link before eventually joining them all together.
They went together fairly well but I would advise that you glue a length long enough for the lower runs to wrap around the front drive sprockets and rear idlers first as the upper run will be hidden by the side skirts and you will need to 'stretch out' the upper run to get it to join up with the other links.

I didn't glue the wheels to the axles as I want to be able to remove the wheels and tracks as sub-assemblies to aid painting later on.
I'm hoping to build this straight OOTB as I haven't got a clue about these vehicles, the only thing I know is it looks pretty.

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

Using an airbrush rather than a rattle can, I undercoated the model with Tamiya XF-1 black then sprayed the base coat with XF-59 desert yellow.
Using Vallejo 70892/087 yellow olive and a paint brush I applied the camouflage pattern with the intention of giving the model a highly thinned overspray to tone down the

yellow olive and make it look as though it was sprayed on....that's the plan anyway.

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

The model is built and ready for painting. I'll be giving it an undercoat of Tamiya XF-1 Matt Black rather than the usual Games Workshop Chaos Black as I'll be able to get into hard-to-reach areas better with an airbrush plus the rattle can will just blow the model all over the place.
The black undercoat will help with the tracks as painting them in place on the model instead of as sub assemblies is going to be tricky.

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

That's enough for the interior so the upper hull will be fitted next then with the addition of a few more bits the model will be ready for painting.
I had thought about making the missing ammo boxes but enough is enough and time to get it done. I based the interior colours on a set of Lifecolour paints for Axis tank interiors and it's good enough for me.

The ruler gives you an idea of just how small the model is ( with imperial measurements shown for those that haven't got a clue about the metric system lol).

Edit; Dammit! I couldn't leave the empty ammo racks so made some from scratch just to fill up the spaces;

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

The tracks are of the link and length type and usually I would do them as sub-assemblies to help with the painting however due to the small size of the model I decided to glue the tracks to the wheels and worry about painting them later on.
Doing one side at a time I removed the tracks from the sprue gluing the top run together first, the lower sections and individual links that go around the sprocket and rear idler were then glued together, leaving them all to set for about twenty minutes.
When ready the lengths were wrapped around the wheels using superglue to help secure them in place. Joining them together I have to say I barely made it as the fit is very precise, luckily I only have a small gap between two links so I'm pleased with that;

One thing to note is that a couple of lengths needed notches cutting out at the ends by the guide horns as these are moulded solid and will prevent the tracks mating together;

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

Today I will be putting the running gear together and due to the small size of everything it is very fiddly but it can be done.
Rather optimistically the instructions say not to glue the wheels in place however if you want to actually get the suspension units together you will have to otherwise it is impossible to assemble the units. Also I've found that location holes need opening up as they are all just too narrow or not deep enough and locating pins need trimming down especially on the rear wheels (parts H14 and H15).
Although I glued the wheels in place I didn't glue the wheel assemblies as it will help with getting the vehicle flat when fixing the suspension to the hull.

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

I think I'd better stop there with the extra detail, thing is when it's flowing like it has done it is very Zen-like for me and I find it enjoyable. The model has some decent interior detail as is but after finding good reference pics online of a CV3/33 in a Canadian museum I added the front visor hinges and visor plates on each side, some hexagonal shapes were punched out and added to the inside of the hull where the hatch hinges are plus a handwheel was punched out and glued to the side of the mg mount;

Quite happy with that so I'll make a start on painting the interior. One thing that is bugging me are the empty ammo box racks

Bronco 1/35 CV3/33 Tankette

After salvaging the upper wing of the Airfix Tiger Moth and respraying it I'm now waiting for another decal sheet to show up, meantime just for shits and giggles I started a Bronco 1/35 kit of an Italian CV3/33 that I bought about three weeks ago.
I quite liked the look of it and when I got it I was surprised by the amount of interior detail included so this weekend has been spent putting it together.
It's a typical Bronco kit as it features some tiny details such as spark plugs for the engine and multipart assemblies however it is going together very nicely so far. I found some pictures on the net of a museum example so I've been using them to add a bit of extra detail such as leads for the spark plugs and some internal wiring but that's about it.
I'm actually getting near to painting the interior although rather unhelpfully Bronco do not give any clues to the colours so after a bit of searching I've decided it will have an off white interior, primer red floor and engine bay, transmission in silver and engine and gearbox in gun metal.

The gun mantlet was a bit of a sloppy fit and you could see into the interior so to give it a rougher finish and to hide the gaps it got a coat of Mr. Surfacer 500.
So far this has been very enjoyable even with all the fiddly bits.