32 articles · 3,719 karma · 6 friends · active 3 weeks, 6 days ago

Greetings all.

Like most people I started modelling when I was a kid, though admittedly it was more my Grandad building the kits whilst I watched, or him helping me greatly when I got a bit older and able to use a knife safely. Most of these kits took an accidental crash landing whilst playing with them. Growing up I tried a couple of times to get back into the hobby I loved as a kid but each time I gave up due to issues, mostly due to lack of knowledge.

After my Grandad passed I found a framed box art in his loft of a Hasegawa F4U-4, Corsair's were his favourite plane and I have many memories of things to do with Corsairs growing up. This lead to me buying the same kit and trying to build it as a memoriam of sorts, despite the mistakes and issues I had an absolute blast and with the ability to find so much online I had a miles better attempt than anything I tried as a teenager. I then immediately bought a second kit, a Revell F-105 which very nearly made me quit the hobby out of frustration as I had both bought a fairly poor kit and also bit off more than I could chew, but over the span of the year I had an on-off attempt at finishing it and when I eventually did I decided that I should try again with something a bit easier and got an Airfix Spitfire. I really enjoyed this kit, so much so I bought an airbrush halfway through and never finished it because I wasn't sure whether to airbrush finish it or continue brush painting it.

Since then I've fell in love with the hobby, I started an Instagram account @scalerambush where I got more and more confident in my builds and sharing them, and nowadays modelmaking is my main hobby with lockdown providing a huge amount of time to sink into it. Since getting the airbrush in 2019 I've built 21 out of my 23 models, 13 of which being built in 2020 alone due to amount of free time I had, all of them being in 1/48 scale. I've also dabbled in miniature painting and built a couple 1/144 kits as side projects.

I mostly build WWII aviation, my main goal is to build a 1/48 representatation of every Corsair variant but this is a very long term goal. I generally prefer building aircraft wheels up which often requires modifications to the kit, aircraft were designed to fly so I just think they look better that way.

A few things:

I prefer building in pairs as it let's me bounce between projects when stuck in a bad point. Often times even building the same kit, but at different points, can eliminate some of the frustrations. After all this is a hobby not a job and as such pushing against a brick wall of troubles is required at times, but sometimes moving onto another kit and having a break for a day or two prevents the struggle from being as bad.

My to-do list is mostly Corsairs, but my stash is growing a bit larger than I'd like so I'm clearing through it slowly before I add a few more Corsairs to it.

Beacon Models Spitfire Mk.I and Bf109E, 1/144. The New Company on the Block.

A while ago Beacon Models started a kickstarter followed by a pre-order for a pair of iconic Battle of Britain aircraft. Now, they're finally here! For a debut kit from a new company I'm very impressed. The kit comes with two sprues, one [...]

Eduard P-39N Airacobra, 1/48. 'Lend-lease Ace Maker'.

I got this kit to be a bit of a quicker build and recover some mojo, and it's generally been a fun build. Whilst the kit is for American P-39Qs, the Eduard set comes with the parts for any of the versions. Foxbot and Montex was used to [...]

Tamiya N1K1 Kyofu / 'Rex', 'Japan's Purpose-Built Floatplane Fighter'

I've built a lot of clean models this year, and what better excuse to make a beaten up bird than a Japanese subject? I ordered this while waiting for some supplies for other projects to arrive and have had fun beating up this big 1/48 [...]

Special Hobby F2G-1, 1/48. 'Fly Fast, Turn Left'

Another Corsair for the collection, this Special Hobby kit was bought around 2 years ago and when I opened the box I immediately realised I wasn't ready for this sort of built and left it in the pile. This is Special Hobby's rendition of [...]

Eduard F4F-3 Wildcat, 1/48. 'The Navy's First Ace'

Following Eduard's amazing 2022 new tooling of the infamous A6M2, I eagerly looked forward to their rendition of the Wildcat and this kit certainly doesn't disappoint. Unsurprisingly the first Wildcat Eduard releases is the F4F-3, [...]

Eduard Bf 109E-4, 1/48. 'Emil Over Britain'.

With two Bf 109 kits, I knew one would have to have the classic yellow nose. I also wanted to try the dreaded mottling that made Luftwaffe aircraft so off-putting. Two birds, one stone I thought. This Bf 109E-4 is supposed WNr. 3709, [...]

Eduard Bf 109E-1, 1/48. 'Emil Over France'

I added Eduard's dual-combo 'Adlerangriff' to the stash at the beginning of last year but put off doing it until a few months ago due to the dreaded mottling, which I hadn't tried. I had a few chip aways at the kit in the past, doing the [...]

Eduard A6M2 Type 0, Model 21, 1/48. 'Saburō Sakai's Longest Mission'.

On August 7th 1942, Ace Pilot Saburō Sakai underwent his most legendary mission and would narrowly survive being shot in the head by the rear gunner of a Dauntless dive bomber. Escorting Japanese bombers to Guadalcanal, Sakai first [...]

Tamiya F4U-1A, 1/48. Silver Sally.

This is a build I started a few months ago as a side project and have slowly got round to finishing this last week. When I was researching for a previous Corsair build I came across this very unique one off scheme and knew I had to add it [...]

Tamiya P-47D-30-RE, 'The Bubbletop over Asia'

After a couple of single builds I wanted to get back to the dual combo way of building kits, and so what better than a bubbletop to go along with the razorback P-47? Having completed a bare-metal Mustang just before the Thunderbolts I [...]