Newsletter

This Months Meeting

7.30pm, Tuesday 17^th December.
First floor - Ley’s Institute Library, St Mary’s Bay Road, Ponsonby, Auckland.

December Meeting

Presentation of certificates from the competition and then down the pub.

From The Editor

An interesting review of the IPMS judging rules as usual after these events. The traditional rules seem to be a bit out of date, and there is a growing interest in changing to a different system. It is interesting to have the feedback from Australia about the number of clubs adopting a points based system rather than the traditional ‘mistake based’ process.

There was an interesting note on the ARC web site from a guy who had built an old Airwaves 1/48 vacform Gloster Javelin. The quote was “I enjoy modelling, not assembling kits”. To me this is the essence of the problem with the current rules. Many years ago when Airfix Frog and Revell was the norm, all kits were to a very similar standard. Wings didn’t fit, seams didn’t join, all detail was raised and if you wanted a cockpit other than a deformed dwarf on a plank, you modelled it. If you wanted markings other than from the box ones you painted them. Paint was brushed on from the can of Humbrol. Looking for mistakes and inaccuracies was a good way to differentiate models. Now we still have these old kits, but competing with modern releases from the likes of Tamiya, with Neomega/Black Box resin cockpits and Aeromaster et al decals. Building a Tamiya kit from the box with minimal skill will get an almost perfect model. Building a Frog kit with a lot of hard work, detailing and reference seeking will not get up to the same standard even though the amount of modelling done is greater. Unfortunately, the current IPMS rules favour the kit assembler and do not encourage people to ‘model’ in the traditional sense.

If we stick with the old rules, we will split the club into people who want to win competitions building from the box modern kits, and those who really want to model not bothering to enter the competitions. This is ultimately personal discretion of course, but will be a loss to the hobby overall.

Colin.

P.S. I asked Pete Mossong to summarise the evening's discussion, but had received nothing by the time I had to print the news letter.

Bleriot Type XI	Novo	1/72	John Watkins
Boeing P-26A Peashooter	Revell	1/72	John Watkins
Panzer Draisne	Dragon	1/35	Lance Whitford
MH-60G Blackhawk	Academy	1/35	John Darlington
Sea Fury FB.II	Hobbycraft	1/48	Andy Hosking
USS Iowa	From Tamiya Missouri	1/350	Bob Beaver
Spitfire Mk.Ia	Tamiya	1/48	Andy Hosking
Fw190D-9	Academy	1/72	Dimitri Berdebes
Fw190A-8	Hasegawa	1/72	Dimitri Berdebes
Seversky P-35A	Academy	1/48	Barry Burton
USS Juneau CL52	Tamiya	1/700	Peter Randall
USS the other one	Tamiya	1/700	Peter Randall
TBF-1C Avenger RNZAF	Accurate Miniatures	1/48	Brett Sharman
Band of Bros 91	Academy / Verlinden	1/35	Kevin Benson
Orc War Boss	Citadel/Warhammer 40K	1/72	Dimitri Berdebes
Yak-1B	Accurate Miniatures	1/48	Mark Robson
Part Built
F-86D	Fujimi	1/48	Mark Robson
Polykarpov I-16	Academy	1/48	Mark Robson
DH Vampire	Hobbycraft	1/48	John Drybrough
Gladiator	Matchbox	1/72	Bill Bourke
Ferrari	Tamiya	1/12	John Wier
M48 Patton	Tamiya	1/35	Dave Phillips
Gloster Meteor	Tamiya	1/48	Colin Whitehouse
Gloster Javelin	Dynavector	1/48	Colin Whitehouse

Upcoming Events

2nd Tamiya/Con NZ.
Wellington 29 - 30 March 2003.

IPMS New Zealand Nationals 2003.
The Octagon, Dunedin, 15-16 March 2003.

How about a break from those monotone military aircraft schemes. Apparently, this “Eagle”is representing America in the skies over Afghanistan.

Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Grumman F3F-1
by Mark Robson

Although the American company Accurate Miniatures is now defunct (or is it?), it will be remembered by 1/48th scale aficionados as an innovative firm that gave the established model brands such as Hasegawa and Tamiya a real shake-up in the Nineties. Their SBD and TBM kits set new standards for detail, and the latter kit particularly would still rank in the best 5 aircraft kits of all time. The instructions that came in the models were always an entertaining read, and sounded as if they were written by enthusiasts who had really built the kits to find out all of the little tricks.

The Grumman F3F was the last biplane fighter in US Navy service, and represented the pinnacle of US biplane design. The portly fuselage belied the plane's performance, which even in training units in 1943 could still out climb a new P-51. The overall impression of the kit is one of very accurate mouldings combined with a well-thought out assembly sequence. The cockpit is so good that a resin detail set would be superfluous, though the instrument panel (in my hands) did not end up as good as the one in the Stormovik kit.

When cutting the fuselage halves off the sprues, take care not to damage the finely reproduced seam along the bottom of the fuselage, and also take care not to splash glue all over this when joining the halves together. There is restrained raised rivet detail present, but this looks in-scale. I had to lose two small lines of rivets along the forward fuselage in the process of cleaning up, but they are not missed.

There is only one area in the plastic parts that caused me grief, and this is the parts that make up the gear doors and their arms. These are supposed to click into the inside of the fuselage halves in a cunning way and lock securely into place. Despite many attempts I could not make this work, and despite the advice of company founder Bill Bosworth on the AM website it seemed to me to be impossible. Once you approach the problem with zen-like calm, the rational solution is to take a blade and slash bits off the offending part until it does fit. Believe me, you can't tell the difference once it is all painted.

The wings attach (after painting) with a minimum of fuss and there is no way that the alignment can be anything but perfect given the accuracy and strength of the strut arrangement. The only part of the kit that I do not think works is the etched brass bracing wires. These are the new trend from the better manufacturers, but to me they do not look convincing. For one thing, they look too two-dimensional, and then there is the problem that unless the placement is 100% accurate they do not forgive any errors of bending or gluing. The material seems immune to superglue and I only persisted because I was building the kit OOB. I'm sure that other modellers have had success with this medium, but I will not be using them on my next F3F, or the Tamiya Swordfish.

The colours of the original are the bright prewar USN orange-yellow and silver lacquer. The former colour causes endless debate on the likes of Hyperscale but I chose to go with the Aeromaster colour in acrylic which looks right to me. I used automotive acrylic lacquer for the silver, and tried to get some difference in the sheen between the fabric covered wing surfaces and the fuselage, but it didn't really come off. The decals represent the 'Felix' squadron insignia (this was used by VF-6 before the war) and these went on with absolutely no carrier film showing.

I highly recommend this kit. The AM range will no doubt be taken on by one of the other model companies (rumoured to be Italeri, which would be good for a price point of view, but I can't see the lovely instruction sheets surviving the transition to the European multi-language format).and will hopefully be distributed more widely under another banner. As the advertising for the kit at time of release said, "even if you are intimidated by biplanes, give this one a go, you can't fail!".

I would like to thank Richard Holland for the opportunity to build his copy of this kit!

(Note has anyone else had a go with these etched brass rigging wires? If you were more successful than Mark is there a better technique? I invested in a set for the Tamiya Swordfish but have yet to try them - Colin.)