A wish for a happy 2015

Although the vast industrial might of the 72 Land production line have been pretty cold and bleak in 2014, we are hoping for a great revival in the new year. Even if we are still feeling like this at present: 

Not mine, but he seems to embody the mood quite well. 

I have been prowling around the stash looking for new victims. Plus I'm trying to retrieve some items from the Shelf of Shame. Keep an eye out for a new early RAF B-17, a whif B-36, and a number of projects from the earlier parts of WW2 (most by Airfix). There seem to be mostly prop types under consideration at present, but jets will no doubt figure into the queue eventually. 

In the meantime, I'd like to wish everyone who has been keeping an eye on the 72 Land Blog this year a very happy and prosperous 2015.

Canopy prep

Not much happening in the modelling dungeon this week, but I did have a chance to get the canopy of the P-1106 masked and attached to the model. A few more things need to be done before it enters the paint shop: it needs some minor seam work and the landing gear doors will need to be added.

I seem to have found many reasons to delay my return to airbrushing. I'm sure this is discomfort due to my understanding that I'm not terribly good at it. Until you put on the paint the model you are working on is still the best thing you've ever done, after all. The fact that I was having actual mechanical problems with the brush itself earlier this year doesn't help. They seemed to be improving (when I added a new O-ring to the nose) before the summer season hit, but we'll see when I get around to an actual session.

Here is a shot of the current state of the Huma P-1106. I still think it is a great aeronautical shape, no matter what the flight characteristics were projected to be. 

Setting up some airbrush time

When it rains. Somehow I've managed to destroy my lower back doing something strenuous (like, k'now, standing up). So you'll have to imagine me at a 45 degree list as I type this. It's either laugh or get committed around here sometimes.

I'm working on setting up for my first airbrushing session in quite some time. There are already a few items in the queue, including the two Tamiya Spitfires I discovered half started while trying to sell them at the Spring Show and a Hasegawa B-26C that I just never was satisfied with the NMF I had originally applied. Shortly I will be masking off the lower surfaces of two HobbyBoss Hurricanes. And then, finally, I will be masking the canopy and doing some seam repair on the Huma P-1106 that I recently started a  mojo ignition project.

As I was taking a leisurely stroll through the decal box the other day I ran across some potential decals for the 1106. Tim is quite right (see comments for 9-28-14) that a projected Marseilles aircraft would be perfect for the type, but I'm trying to stick with items on hand as much as possible. I found a partially used Aeromaster sheet for Bf-109s from JG27. This is sheet 72-073. It is the third example on the first page, an F-2 Trop flown by Eduard Neumann in Libya in the winter of 1941. Well, mine will be a few years later and will assume that the Germans had not gotten chased out of North Africa before the new experimental jet aircraft started to arrive. But it is very similar to the paint scheme I found on the net, with a yellow nose and rudders, and a white fuselage stripe and wingtips. One requirement was to have the JG27 unit marking on the nose. 

50,000

I've just noticed that my page-read counter has gone over 50,000. This would be a good time to give my heartfelt thanks to all the readers who have spent the time to take the occasional look at whatever weird stuff I spew out. Or at least that one guy who looked at the first page 50,000 times. 

My entire purpose in beginning this blog was to try and present modelling in a forthright positive light. There is so much negativity on some of the forums that I frequent. I wanted to show that models could be built, that if they aren't perfect it is not the end of the world, that enthusiasm can sometimes be shown to take the place of talent, that 1 mm is not a dealbreaker for everyone. I really am serious about being comfortable being a Profoundly Average Modeller, and will try to evangelize the concept where and when I can. 

Of course even I violate those principles on occasion (see recent rant), so, again, I appreciate everyone's patience and forbearance. Back to the bench! 

Airfix in 2015

We're just a few weeks out from the annual IPMS-UK Nationals. Although most kitmakers announce their new releases at intervals throughout the year, Airfix is one of the few manufacturers that tries to hold something back for the UK show. We all have types that we want someone to produce - so what 1:72 kits would I like to see from Airfix in 2015?

Imagine BBSS.

Fairey Battle. An important early war type that will fit in well with 2014's Blenheim and Do-17. Might even get the nose correct this time. 

HS Buccaneer. Something of a long shot, but it really is needed and is in line with their longstanding policy of redoing popular ancient kits.

Avro Shackleton. This has been rumored since the Nimrod was issued. And there is a tale that Airfix staff were measuring a restored example in the UK. Sometimes this is mentioned as a Lincoln. I'd go for either one.

Supermarine Scimitar. Another long shot, but if their research said a Swift would sell, this should be a natural.

And if they want something with less effort, just scale down the CAD file for the Javelin and cut some metal.

Despite being a Yank, Airfix is dear to me. I loved most of their 2014 program (Tiger Moth, ragwing Hurricane, Blenheim, Do-17, DC-3, Swift) and will likely be at least interested in whatever they release in my scale. Well, ok, if they come out with a line of F-16s that might cause me to go catatonic. Hopefully we'll get some answers at Telford this year.

Discuss amongst yourselves.... 

Looking for mojo

I've had a bit more than a week to decide if the last post was a heartfelt cri de coeur or the world's loudest whine. Still not quite sure how to categorize it.

However, there are two strategies for trying to revive your modelling mojo when you hit the wall, for whatever reason. First is to try and finish something that has lingered for some time or has fallen on to the Shelf of Shame. Second is to start something completely new. Being naturally inclined toward excess, I decided to do both.

First, the brand new item. I am well on my way to having built almost all of the line of Huma kits. Since the owner/creator of the brand has retired, this is one of those lines (like Merlin, but in respect for the squeamish we won't go there) where you actually can build everything they have produced. I'm well over halfway. But one of the kits I hadn't gotten to yet is the Messerschmitt P-1106. This is one of their Luftwaffe 1946 types, a subgenre that I still have a lot of love for even if the rest of the modelling world seems to have turned elsewhere.

Not a very complex kit, it consists of 30-some parts. It would be even simpler except for the parts that involve the engine, which only exists in the model because parts are visible through the landing gear bays. It is one of those Luft 46 types that looks fast while standing still, with the cockpit mounted well to the rear of the aircraft.

Once the fuselage is together and the interior (including that engine) are painted, the rest of the basic construction goes quickly. I can feel some rust on my modelling technique - it has been almost 5 months since I've done anything much - so there will be some cleanup required to the seams. One issue is that of nose weight. The only place to put anything is precisely where the engine is exposed by the wheel wells. So it looks like some sort of clear support will be in order, despite the fact that I kind of hate how that looks.

While grazing around the net, I stumbled on a paint scheme for the plane. It was a natural, given my interest in the desert war. I should be able to swipe the decals from any number of desert Bf-109 sheets. Attached is the color scheme, along with progress to date. Next up is masking the camo and laying down the lower surface RLM78. Though, on further review, it might be easier to do the white fuselage stripe and yellow nose first.

Withdrawing from the hobby?

This has been a quiet summer here in the 72 Land modelling bunker. There are actually reasons for this beyond common indifference, and some of them are rather grim.

First of all, this has been one of the hottest summers in my entire 30 year tenure in the Pacific Northwest. I was about ready to buy in to the oddball Nibiru stories about pole shift; it seemed we had ended up somewhere around Atlanta’s old location. From late June through mid-September, there couldn't have been more than a couple of days where the high was under 80. Those of you in more deserty climes will get a chuckle out of that, but that is extremely uncommon in the NW. And most of those 80+ days were actually 85+ days. We set numerous individual daytime high records, though thankfully we never broke the “hottest temp ever” record of 103. Don’t forget, those of you chuckling in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tunisia, that this is a region where virtually no one has home air conditioning. We are down to one fan in this household, and it had to stay wherever the most people were congregating. And that was not my workbench.

The economic news was worse. I am well into a fourth year of unemployment. This is not unique either, which I know from the various forums that I post to. Nobody wants a 55+ year old who hasn’t worked in his field for that long (some periods of temp work, but that doesn’t seem to count for anything). If the economy was blistering I could probably find something anyway due to my 25+ years of experience, but it is still in the dumps, with no clear sign of future improvement.

From this, the economics kick in. You can’t lose a $98k salary per year for that long without massive budget destruction. Everything is mortgage, monthly bills, food and fuel. And there is still a negative balance each month.

Which leads to the problem (that is actually related to the subject of the blog!) of having to sell off the stash. To a person who has the collector gene, the idea of selling your prized possessions is almost physically painful. Kits, books, magazines, collectors comics, things I have accumulated since the 70s are all going on the block. I long ago ran through the duplicates (of which I never had too many) and kits that I probably wasn’t going to build if I was honest. But now I’m well into things I didn’t want to let slip away. It is personally uncomfortable, depressing, even demeaning to know you’re in a spot where you have to do this. Ebay, for all its faults, at least provides a worldwide audience to allow your items to find someone who wants to pay for them.

But it is still depressing. I feel like one of those types who feels compelled to give away all of their possessions before they jump off a bridge or something. The miasma just sort of takes over your free time and you can’t summon the will to get on the workbench and keep on building, because you know that you’ll never finish those subcollections because you’ve had to sell off some of the kits that were going to take up spots in the lineup.

Like the blog header says, this feels like withdrawing from the hobby. But I’m fighting it. I certainly don’t want to become an ex-modeller with an empty garage. But consider your own hobby habits – where would you be if you couldn’t spend money on new kits, paints, glue, tools, display areas, books? It’s not a good place to be, but I have to keep reminding myself that there are still more kits in the stash than I can build in a reasonable remaining lifetime. And finally, as the cooler weather of autumn spreads into the region, maybe I can get my mojo back and get something back into the “completed” column.   

Here is what I'm dreaming of....