September - Eastern Suburbs Scale Modelling Club

RB
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September 2015
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Issue 9
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Volume 24
Mo
delli ng
Battle of
Britain 75th
Anniversary
Eurofighter Typhoon
ZK349 resplendent in
1940 RAF camouflage
joins Hawker Hurricane
IIc LF363 of the Battle of
Britain Memorial Flight in
commemorating the
anniversary.
It says
much for the Typhoon’s
abilities that it’s able to
stay with the Hurricane at
this speed; albeit nearly
standing on its tail!
A Community Group Proudly Supported by the City of Whitehorse
EVENTS & INFORMATION
Editorial
Events Calendar
T
he lack of input from members has ‘forced’
me to write about my favourite subject this
month - the Battle of Britain. September 15th
marks the 75th anniversary of the climax of that
pivotal event and, incidentally, marks fifty years
of study for me.
1st September 2015
ESSMC Inhouse Swapmeet
Combined with the regular meeting. Bring your
unwanted kits and/or money.
27th September 2015
Waverley Interclub Comp
Wadham House, 52 Wadham St, Mt. Waverley
9:30am - 4:00pm
Details; Ethan Edwards [email protected]
The Imai Thunderbirds FAB1 kit featured herein
came with a bonus; a cast resin figurine of
Aloysius 'Nosey' Parker, so I was doing a little
research looking for images of Parker to
establish the correct colour of his chauffeur's
uniform (God, I hope it’s not pink!). This brought
to light a more serious problem with the centrally
mounted driver's seat (which idea McLaren
apparently pinched for their F1 supercar!). The
kit part is fitted with the boom-mounted
microphone which protrudes from the right-hand
side of the squab. However in pictures of the
'real' thing it's mounted on either the left-hand or
the right! So which is correct? The clue is in
Parker’s jacket; apparently men’s jackets and
shirts etc. always close with the left side over the
right whilst ladies clothing fastens the opposite
way - did you know that? Therefore the figurine is
correct and photos with the right side over the left
have been inverted, confirming that the
microphone is attached to the left side of the seat.
24-25th October 2015
Wings Aircraft Scale Model Competition and
Exhibition
Australian National Aviation Museum
2nd Avenue, Moorabbin Airport
All enquiries to [email protected]
13-14-15th November
ESSMC Canberra Trip
If you’re interested make sure you’ve given your
name to Frank!
14th November 2015
Bayonet Model Competition & Swap Meet
Liberator Hangar
Cnr. Farm Road & Princes Hwy. Werribee
9:00am - 4:00pm
Entry $5.00. Tables & Details; 0425 860 472
21st-22nd November 2015
Southern Model Club Competition and Swap
Church of Christ Hall
2-12 Chesterville Road. Cheltenham
Sat. 10am - 5pm. Sun. 10:30am - 5pm.
Swap & Sell Sunday at Pine Street Hall
Entry $2. Details: Rob; 0432 051 548
Then a thought struck me - I’m spending a
ridiculous amount of my time researching a minor
detail in the clothing of a 1960's TV puppet!
Is this what it's come to?
Michael
2016
6th March 2016
ESSMC Annual Swap & Sell
Arbour Room, Box Hill Community Arts Centre
Cnr Combarton Road & Station Street, Box Hill
10:00am - 12:30pm
Tables & details; Roger 0439 650 800
President:
Frank Spinosa 0418 555 324
[email protected]
Secretary:
Michael Howe 9874-5702
[email protected]
Treasurer:
Frank Spinosa 0418 555 324
[email protected]
Newsletter:
Michael Howe 9874-5702
[email protected]
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Presitorial
Pizza and Plastic Success
I
t was a sunny Sunday morning the sweet smell of
spring almost upon us. The dough mixer whirring
must have awakened the plastic connoisseurs.
By mid-morning they started to arrive and boy did
they come like flies to a picnic. Pleasantries were
had, coffee and tea were drunk, biscuits and cake
were engulfed and then a new concept occurred.
People had brought boxes, I think they called them
“Model Kits”. They opened them up and broke open
the plastic bags inside - blasphemy you say! And
then they started to cut parts off the sprue - it's almost
enough to make a grown man cry.
Then in
amazement, people started gluing bits together - hey
this might actually kick off! They called it modelling.
It was incredible to see more than a dozen members
sitting and discussing all that our hobby has to offer.
Even Rob Woodard opened a kit and started
modelling - I don't know
how he can live with
himself, desecrating a kit
like that!
Later the allure of smoke
from the wood-fired oven
awoke the senses of my
glue-sniffing friends. They
left their model making to
sample some of my wife
and I's culinary delights
“PIZZA”. After bloating
my comrades with fine fare we resumed the art of
gluing and spent the afternoon having fun. It ended
up being a resounding success which I think will be
the start of many more to come. Many thanks to all
the helpers on the day and to those that participated
to make it a great social event.
Frank Il Duce di Modelling
HMS QE!
The Royal Navy’s first big
carrier since the 50's nears
completion in Rosyth,
Scotland. While not quite
as big as the American
Nimitz class it's a huge
vessel, as displayed in the
photo at right in drydock
next to the Invincible class
HMS Illustrious. No kits
exist as yet - the model
shown (inset) was cobbled
together from scratch and
existing Airfix parts.
Gary Zimmer
P
ST
RS RE
These days I seem to have a load of tools I use
when building models, but in ancient times (1970)
I had glue and nothing else. The first glue I used
was in tubes carrying the Airfix brand; this stuff
had amazing surface tension because once I
glued a part and then put the tube some
considerable distance away, there would be a
little fibre optic cable connecting the two. Not
only that, the fumes were sufficient to get every
hippie at Woodstock so high they would be
cheering even if Milli Vanilli were on the stage.
Then came Britfix, not as hallucinogenic but still
on the list of all the dangerous chemicals people
of my pre-nanny-state generation survived.
About twenty-five years ago I bought my first
resin kits, and on learning that poly glue was no
use, looked for an alternative. One such was
Araldite, and in error I used twenty-four-hour stuff.
This meant that I had to stay up half the night
pushing the parts back into place, as they slid
away from their intended place at glacial place. I
bought some 5 minute epoxy after that.
MI
riter’s block, aaargh! Many times before I
have put four fingers to keyboard and
produced a page or two, but it is a simple task if I
have some inspiration. Standing in the cold while
the swap meet Gestapo look at their watches and
think to themselves “It’s one minute to nine, we
can’t possibly let anyone in yet” or being on the
receiving end of the service (or lack of) from of
hobby shop employees trained by Basil Fawlty.
When something like that happens the effect is
instant, and I can write a tirade as easily as a
female country singer who has just been dumped
by her latest beau can write another song.
D
W
this abominable
STCAR
muck called
O
cyanoacrylate or
super glue. This is
a necessary evil,
FROM
unfortunately, due
to some kits having
resin or brass bits.
My main gripe is
that this awful brew
more often than not refuses to do its job, that is
connect the parts I want it to join. What it is
superb at glueing is of course my fingers: to each
other, or to some tiny part. We’ve all done it, I
seem to recall at one Moe trip one of our number
who shall remain unnamed (Peter McKinnon, if
you were wondering) comprehensively glued his
fingers together. I immediately picked up a sharp
implement and offered my services, since I am a
doctor (not of any medical qualification, but that
wouldn’t have stopped me). Peter shuddered
and declined, and spent the rest of the day
soaking his conjoined fingers in acetone. The
other thing it can do very efficiently is to set inside
the nozzle of its bottle. Every time I want one tiny
drop I have to go through the ritual of getting a
3mm drill bit to excavate the nozzle. Before that I
have to clean the last batch of super glue out of
the drill flutes. When I manage to unblock this
contraption, I don’t just get a drop, I get half the
bottle. Super glue and tomato sauce have one
thing in common, they are non-Newtonian fluids,
meaning that once it starts flowing, it flows faster
than you expect. Then the bottle nozzle is
blocked again and I have a load of glue on fingers
that never were anywhere near the stuff. I then
spend minutes or hours chewing the glue spatter
from my fingers. Surely life has to be simpler.
NE
Stick To It!
Gary
My next adventure into the world of adhesives is
For the “Only in Japan” File...
A series of kits (Dragon re-releases) to exploit a new anime
series called, and I kid you not, “Girls und Panzer”. The
quote below says it all...
“Welcome to the Girls und Panzer Wiki;
This is a wiki designed to cover the basic information and finer
details of the anime, manga, and light novel series "Girls und
Panzer." Girls und Panzer is set in an alternate universe where a
sport known as "Panzerfahren" or "Sensha-do" - the art of fighting
tanks, is a lot more common than today. The sport is practiced
entirely by girls and women and is considered feminine. The series
follows the girls of Ooarai Girls Academy as they learn about,
operate, and battle with all kinds of tanks against other tanking
schools while forming bonds with their machines and each other.
If you want to know more, you’re on your own!
Michael
The Kit Collector
In The Pink with Imai/Aoshima
1:32 Rolls Royce ‘FAB1'
W
ith the release of the animated ‘Thunderbirds
Are Go’ TV series there’s been renewed interest
in the original in “Supermarionation” and this includes
the model kits first released by Imai in Japan in the
60's.
Aoshima have taken up the mantle and re-released
many of the kits in updated form, which means
deleting the toy-like operating features that were a
typical and annoying part of every Imai model.
The new 1/32 FAB1 pictured from the ‘Carlton’ release.
This example is the model of Lady Penelope’s pink,
super Rolls Royce - FAB1. Maybe it’s just fifty years of
familiarity but somehow FAB1 doesn’t look
outlandish, and is certainly more attractive than the
ghastly Ford Thunderbird version used in the live
action movie! The Imai kit is
typical of the breed. Forty-five
plastic parts with skinny rubber
tyres, metal gearbox, battery
contacts, wire and springs
make up the kit which requires
a Mabuchi FA130 motor and
batteries. The springs were to
be fitted into two plastic
‘missiles’ that could be
launched from holes replacing
the inner pair of headlights and
the model is further
compromised by a ‘flattened’
interior covering the batteries
and featuring only seat-tops
and truncated bodies for the
two occupants with separate
heads. This might explain the
transparent blue canopy. The
body was a sort of creamy-pink
shade - not right at all.
This kit was re-released in 1998 (Above) pretty much
untouched except for the inclusion of a cast resin
figure of Parker - Lady
P’s chauffer/butler standing about 40mm
high and supplied with
a small wooden plinth.
The figure is an
extremely good
likeness of ‘Nosey’ but
the purpose of his
inclusion escapes me.
Aoshima
Aoshima have now
released a number of
reworked Imai
kits including TB1, 2 and 3. Most seem to be
the Carlton releases of the late 90's. The new
version of FAB1 came out in 1999 and the
Aoshima kit is dated 2013. Is it the same kit
as the old Imai? Well, yes and no... There’s
no motorization, no missiles, no occupants
and completely reworked sprues including
clear head and tail light lenses, but the body
itself - in a much better hot pink colour - is a
giveaway. It’s identical in dimensions and the
part number ’1' under the boot lid is exactly
the same though many detail changes have
been made; the top of the dash has been
reworked to match the ‘real’ car’s fluted
design (see left), the bonnet has been
redesigned to match a new canopy line and slightly
taller radiator, the dubious wedge-shaped mirrors are
gone, as are the boot-lid vents and door handles along
with the moulded in brackets for the missile launchers.
Twin antenna mounts above the boot-lid are new and
replace a single hole on the left side.
Above; This 1998 kit retained the original artwork with its images
from the TV, plus the very old Imai logo! Note the inset image is
inverted and the microphone is on Parker’s right, while his jacket
closes to the left.
The Kit Collector
he kit now includes a
small decal sheet
with instruments with the
pink canopy framing and
there’s a sheet of pre-cut
foil trim for the body and
canopy. There are two
thin wire antennae and
they’ve even added a
tiny PE fret though it
duplicates the
instrument decals and
the RR badge on the
grille.
T
Parker now has a proper
seat in the full depth
interior and it includes
the boom microphone so
prominent in shots of the
‘real’ interior (although
wrongly placed on his
right). A cannon muzzle
can be fitted to the centre of the grille and two more
in place of the centre headlight lens on each side.
Similarly twin cannon and grapnels can be
optionally mounted in the tail lights.
The final change is that the wheels and
tyres are almost twice as wide.
Aoshima have just announced this
new kit of Thunderbird 4 in 1:48 to be
available in December 2015. This will
be a rework of yet another old Imai with
the wheels(!) and missiles removed. It
will feature an array of various ‘tools’
(laser cutter, grapnel etc.) to fit to the
nose.
Michael
Above; Aoshima’s box-top art for the reworked FAB1.
Left; Original artwork for TB4.
Below; Test shot of new ‘toolkit’ parts.
Bottom; Test shot of reworked TB4 model.
Feature
A
Battle of Britain
75th Anniversary
number of the more important battles of
WWII have been referred to as ‘turning
points’; Stalingrad, Midway, El Alamein and, of
course the Battle of the Atlantic spring to mind,
but how many of these would even have occurred
if the Royal Air Force had lost the Battle of Britain?
September 15th 2015 marks the 75th
Anniversary of the climax of the BoB. In 1940 the
numerically superior and better experienced
German Luftwaffe was tasked with bringing
Britain to the negotiating table or paving the way
for a Wermacht invasion of the islands. Hermann
Goering claimed they could achieve it in four
days; he was wrong - not for the first, or last, time.
Many incorrect claims have been made about the
BoB since, and many myths have arisen. There
was no doubt that the RAF was outnumbered, nor
that the Luftwaffe’s pilots were more experienced
after Spain, but there were other factors working
in Britain’s favour. Her pilots, if inexperienced in a
shooting war, were good, very good. Her fighter
aircraft, the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine
Spitfire were world class; the Hurricane a rugged,
hard-hitting bomber destroyer and the Spitfire a
supreme dogfighter - easily the equivalent of
Germany’s Messerschmitt Me109 - and the battle
was fought over home ground, always an
advantage. The Me-109's limited range meant
the bombers were often left to fend for
themselves and, on September 15th itself, they
were battling a head-wind that halved their
forward speed.
Finally, thanks to AIrChief Marshall Hugh
Dowding’s vision and
drive the RAF had the
world’s first radarcontrolled air
defence/interception
system.
The
Germans had radar
too, and it was
technically superior,
but ground-based
radar is inherently
defensive. While the RAF’s actual technology
was relatively crude the organisation using it was
not. Information from receiver stations and
Observer Corps on incoming raids, often while
they were still over France, was constantly
reported to Fighter
Command HQ’s Filter and
Operations Room at RAF
Stanmore where it was
coordinated and then
passed on to the
appropriate Group HQ
who in turn controlled
Sector Stations in direct
contact with the fighter
squadrons.
Information
on availability of
squadrons went back up
the line to the Sector
stations giving each Group
commander a near realtime picture of incoming
raids, status of each
squadron (at readiness,
airborne, engaged or re-arming and refuelling).
German intelligence thought each squadron was
rigidly tied to its own aerodrome but in fact,
squadrons could be called on to intercept
anywhere in their Group’s territory or even
outside it. The system enabled squadrons to,
usually, be just where they were needed, when
they were needed without mounting wasteful and
tiring standing patrols.
The aim of the Luftwaffe was to destroy the RAF
as an effective fighting force; the aim of the RAF
was to remain an effective force while making the
effort too expensive for the Germans to maintain.
In the end it was a close-run thing but, thanks to
the sacrifices of people both in the air and on the
ground and egregious blunders by German
commanders, it was the Germans who blinked.
Feature
While the RAF remained in being a German
invasion of the British Isles was an enormously
perilous adventure. When you consider the
resources and years of planning that went into
the D-Day landing operation which, even so,
remained a risky prospect, the idea of the
Wermacht launching a similar feat on a wide front
over the treacherous English Channel with a
bunch of co-opted Rhine river barges looks
ludicrous. Admiral Raeder thought so, and
refused to countenance his navy defending any
more than a narrow landing front which the
German Army regarded as suicide. The Royal
Navy wouldn’t be sitting on its hands and, with
RAF air cover would have decimated any such
invasion force. But knock out the RAF, allowing
your bombers unrestricted freedom to attack
cities, ports, ships and defensive positions and
the mere threat of invasion might be enough to
bring the British to the negotiating table; not
Churchill certainly, but there were many less
resolute people in government.
So, with Britain effectively knocked out of the war,
occupied or simply neutral, what changes? Well,
the attack on Russia could have taken place
earlier and with much greater force. There would
be no nightly bomber attacks on German
industries or cities and the Russians would never
receive the massive supply of materiel that would
come through Lend-Lease.
Resistance
movements would remain local and
uncoordinated, easily crushed. America would
likely remain isolationist and without a British
base would be impotent to affect the European
situation even if they had the will. They might
even have negotiated with Japan and never gone
to war there either. The world could have been a
very different place...
Michael
Top left; The Eurofighter Typhoon BoB 75th Tribute is
the subject of an upcoming 1:72 kit by Hasegawa. Corgi
are releasing a die-cast of this aircraft too.
Top right & below; The 1:72 RCAF Tribute CF-18 Hornet
kitted by Canuck/Modelcraft.
Above; Airfix’s 75th Anniversary gift set A50173 with
Spitfire, Hurricane, Me-109 & He-111.
Bottom; The
only available
image of a
promised 1:72
k i t
f r o m
HobbyMaster
featuring the
RCAF Tribute
CF-18.
© ESSMC Inc. 2015. SeamLines Editorial Policy. SeamLines is published on the first Tuesday of every month except January. Deadline for inclusion of material in each issue is the Tuesday prior
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