Considering the next wave of kit starts

Though it has been a slow time for production, I have been giving some thought to which new models I will introduce now that I’m in the final stages of a number of kits. I have an AModel Rutan Voyager to finish painting, and a lot of touchup required on the Phantom FG1, both of which must be done before I can turn them to the decaling stage. But other than items on the Shelf of Shame, those are the final examples of the current production run. So what is next?

First of all, I have three items that are continuing themes from 2012. The first item, which already has the cockpit together, is the Trumpeter Wellington. I did fiddle about with the MPM Wellington for a little while, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to put together and I think the Trumpeter kit will be less stressful. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m no big fan of their choice of how to represent the geodetic structure and fabric, but I’ll have to see how that looks with a coat of paint.

Then comes the MPM Fairey Battle. That cockpit too has been built, though it was a titanic struggle to do so. Nothing fit, and I think that some major filing may still be in order before the fuselage halves will come together. Both of these types are important entries in the WW2 RAF bomber collection.

Next, I’ve decided to add the Dragon/Cyberhobby DeHav Sea Vixen into the postwar British fighters group. This collection saw a lot of additions in 2012 and this will be my first in 2013. I know that the Sea Vixen has been slammed for the shape of its radome, but if I decide that it annoys me too much there are always aftermarket resin replacements. I suspect I can live with it in its present form, however.

And finally, I’ve added a kit that I completely forgot that I owned! While doing the stash crawl that gave me the idea for the mini-projects I’ll be following in the next couple of blog entries, I ran across the AModel Global Flyer, a descendent of the Voyager that I am currently wrapping up. The difference in sophistication between the two kits is rather stark: smaller sprue gates, sharper molding, better plastic, more polished surfaces. I suspect this one will be quite a bit easier to build than the Voyager was, and that wasn’t exactly a life or death struggle.

In the next three days I’ll outline an additional three series projects that I will be starting on. At least a couple of them involve kits that I can’t remember having seen built in at least the recent past.