Bench time (Hurricane, Stryker, Skyvan)

Things were pretty busy this weekend, but I did get a bit of bench time over the course of the two days.

The main distraction was in celebration of a significant promotion my wife received at her work (go Sue!) We spent the day out, culminating in a dinner at Azteca (a favorite NW chain of Mexican restaurants). A day of activity, of course, means a setback for my back and hip issues, so I spent a lot of the remaining time horizontal, catching up on some reading. But the lure of the workbench eventually got me up and working.

I’m using one of the Revell Hurricane 2c kits for my long-planned Egyptian AF example. The kit goes together well, but I have had some problems with the wing mounted guns. They are very nearly to scale, which means that the barrels are very slim indeed. To a ham-fisted modeler like myself, that can only mean one thing: broken-off barrels galore. I probably should have held off on adding them until after painting, but my gluing technique – flooding the join with Tenax to ensure a good seal – doesn’t coexist well with paint. So I’ve tried to be careful while handling the model, and for the most part it has worked. However, once I got around to adding an Eduard masking set for the camo, all bets were off. As were all guns.

I’ve finally finished major construction on the Academy Stryker. It is a nice little kit, with a surprising number of parts for such a small vehicle. Well, not in comparison to some of these 1:35 scale monsters with literally 500 parts to them, but much of the non-aircraft work I’ve been doing is airfield tractors and ammo wagons, which don’t have many pieces at all. The big gun mounted on the top of the Stryker and all wheels have yet to be attached (since they require different paints) but it is now ready for a coat of X115 Field Green.

Decalling is the other major activity at present. I'm working on two AModel kits: Beech Starship and Yak-130. The decals on the Yak-130 have been a disappointment. Despite the gloss coat on the model, and liberal use of SuperSet/Sol, some silvering is taking place. The only hope at this stage is that the overall semi-matte coat will hide the worst of it. The Starship is all white, so the problem is lessened. AModel kits have improved dramatically in the last few years; it might be time to upgrade their decal tech too. 

The Airfix Skyvan continues its slow descent down the production line. I do have the cockpit transparencies masked and will shortly button up the fuselage. There will be lots of seam work to be done on this aged kit.