Hi Guys,

Just spent all day hopefully getting rid of a virus called XP Antispyware 2011. Just blew clean through my Avast antivirus prog so I am not at all impressed. Hope you don't get it as it is a real pain.

Cheers

Pete

Hi John,

Don't know if this will help. Looking at photos and drawings is fine but it sometimes does not give a "real feel" to the subject. When my computer went belly up on Saturday I was in the middle of sending you some pics of my old Aifix Hampden kit. Yes it was built in 1968 and my modelling skills have improved somewhat since then. For the last few years it has been stripped down pending a complete refurbishment but I might just buy a new kit as it seems Airfix have 3 different colour schemes. This was built well before I started spraying several coats of varnish on, which is why the decals are peeling off, and I have removed the wheel doors. Otherwise it is pretty intact. Ignore the large steamlined fairing for the DF loop - think Airfix got that wrong as all the pics I have seen show a large oval loop without a fairing. If I do it again I might go for the earlier paint scheme with the wavy edged Earth/Green and a higher Night finish.

Cheers,

Pete

A bit odd, that there were outer wing bomb loads. I'll add hard points for those.

Might be because of the scant room available for internal bomb loads in that wafer thin fuselage.

Yes, only 4000lb internally but a further 2 x 500lb under wings if required. Bit like the Stirling and Halifax as they had small bomb bays in the wings for up to 3 x 500lb either side. Seemed to be design requirement early on. Hard to see but note two long Halifax type exhausts running back to the end of the underside nacelle - both on left side of cowling, unlike the Halifax where they were on the right.

Pete

You know Peter.. you shouldn't be so modest. I think that's a pretty good rendition.

1968!

I built my first in the early seventies. A Grumman F3F. Back then as a lad, I just hand painted them all.

Hi BP,

Started building kits when I was about 7 or 8 years old so we are talking about 1956/7. New damn all about most of them, and had virtually nothing but crap "Croid" glue (meant for paper really it set in hard brown lumps and was probably made from boiled down horses), old oil paints in tubes and some "Indian Ink". First 2 I think were Aifix Lysander and Hurricane. Hurri was done in brown/green/light blue oil paint and Lysander left in silver grey plastic and black prop and tyres. Got a bit better since then (I hope). By the time I built the Hamp I had "Humbrol Authentic" paints so it was passable. Oldest kit I have left I think, albeit in my "spares" box is the Airfix Me110 - possibly 50+ years old. Now I have a good library to research them, over 100 paints and an airbrush (3 actually but only one good "Badger") so they do look rather better I think, not that I have built many of late, but loads to do if I live long enough to retire.

Getting back to the Hampden, I note the Wellington designed at the same time only carried a max bombload of 6000lb so with the wing hardpoints in use the 5000lb on the Hamp was not too bad. The Whitley carried up to 7000lb but ever so sedately. It was the Stirling, Halifax and Manchester/Lancaster that pushed the offensive load up to over 10000lb at reasonable speeds, ranges and heights. Add to that the B17, B24 and B29 - remember buying the B29 when Airfix first released it. I suspect one of the reasons they went broke the first time was that they did not increase their prices enough to cope with the rising price of oil and therefore plastic. For a long time Series 1 ( single engined a/c) was 2/- (say 16 cents US at today's prices). Series 2 (small twins such as the 110)were 3/- (24c), Series 3 (larger twins eg Hudson) 4/6 (36c), Series 4? (Wellington) 6/- (53c), from then I forget the series number but the first Lancaster was 7/6 ( 60c), Sunderland and later Stirling 10/6 (84c) and B29 13/6 I think ( $1). I remember buying the B-29 from a shop near my grammar school in 1966 and taking it home 8 miles on 2 buses. It was my Christmas present to me and I still have all of the above. Now I am looking at paying around £32 ($51) for the Vickers Valiant "V Bomber" when it is released shortly. How things have changed.

Cheers,

Pete

In the US, at about the same time Airfix went for 19, 29, 49, and 98 cents. The WWI kits and small single engine fighters at the low end, Stukas, 110s, P-38s in the 29 cent range. My beloved Hudson was 49, as was the Mitchell. The Wellington and Ju88 were also. The Lanc, B-17, B-24, He-177 were at the 98 cent range. A one ounce bottle of paint was 10 cents. So, for a buck, a boy could buy and paint his plane and still have some cash left for candy. That is a far cry from the $15 today for the same Spitfire I paid 19 cents for in 1958.

Geez that was cheap! I think when I was building them more regularly later on in the late seventies, they were upward of 1.50 or $2.00. Usually for me it was either a Monogram or Revell Kit with the Testors variety packs. Sometimes, we might be lucky enough to get dad to drive over to one high end hobby shops to look for some of the more exotic Hasegawa kits and fancy Humbrol paints. I never owned an airbrush, and still don't. The kit I'm working on right now (for the past 4 years ) is Dick Bong's P-38. Fortunately, the silver spray paint I used so far has left a fairly decent finish.

I can tell you right now, you wouldn't see pictures of mine on Hyperscale.

Revell 1/72 FW190A Built @1970 with a couple of Rocco Mini-tanks as dressing



Photographed on the back porch 2010