Forthcoming Attractions

I thought it may be of interest to show some of the builds currently on my workbenches. Above is ICM's BF109F. This will be completed using the lovely new Aires resin cockpit. The kit shows promise and should build into a little gem.


Just coming up for its first lot of undercoat is Classic Airframes Dornier 17Z. It's CA's usual style and will build very nicely.


Hasegawa's Junkers 88 in 1/72 may be small, but is perfectly formed. A great cockpit, full bomb load, and interesting Eastern Front colour scheme.

Another Classic Airframes kit. The Savoia Marchetti S.79. It's coat of gloss varnish is just drying and will be ready for its decals soon. A diamond in the rough, but still a diamond.

Just completed is the new Hasegawa B-24D in 1/72 scale. It's really superb, although I did need to add a lot of detail to the interior.

These are just some of my current works-in-progress. No such thing as a Bank Holiday round here!

Bare Metal Finish

As a lover of post-war jets and late war fighters, I find the prospect of a bare metal finish a little disconcerting. One year, at the IPMS Nationals, the overall champion was a C119 Packet, in bare metal. It looked incredible! Especially when I found out later he'd done it with KitKat wrappers.
More recently I'd built an F-86 using SNJ metal and rubbing powder. A long, messy, tedious job that yielded great results, but I had to be careful not to let greasy mitts damage the appearance I'd spent all night trying to achieve. There had to be a better method of applying a metal finish that didn't drive you into a straitjacket.


The answer arrived one day, in a bottle of Alclad II. This wonderful airbrush lotion applies a metal finish at the touch of a button. Well perhaps it's not that easy! The instructions call for a gloss black finish prior to applying it, but I think you can use any colour providing it's gloss. It does affect the metal finish you end up with.


Adding coloured metal panels is a breeze if you gloss up first. Alclad say you can mask over the bare finish. You can, if you use post-it notes. There's more flexibility if you have a coat of dry varnish between you!