22 Navy Ghost
Airfix 1/72 Phantom FG.1 by Huw Morgan14 Würger
Eduard 1/48 New-Tool
Fw190-A4 by Jay BlakemoreW
ell, that is it! After
32 years in my day
job I have retired!
Well, more accurately, semi-
retired, as I will still be going back
for two and a half days a week,
plus magazine work on top of that.
So now seems like a good
time to review the stash which
for the last ten years I have been
squirrelling away, awaiting the
day when I will actually have
some free time to do modelling.
Those days have now
arrived, and it is hard to
know where to start.
An audit of my collection
shows just how my tastes have
changed over the years. For
a long time, I only modelled
1/32 scale kits. I had always put
this down to my deteriorating
eyesight, but over the last five
years, the number of 1/48 scale
kits started to increase, even as
my interest in modern US Navyand Aggressor aircraft returned.
And I had the realisation that
I was never going to be able
to build a reasonable themed
collection in the larger scale.
So, now two shelves are full
of Academy and Zouki Mura
Phantoms, Hasegawa Legacy
and Super Hornets, plus a few
Crusaders, a couple of Kinetic’s
Hawkeyes and Greyhounds, and
in the gaps, a few Tamiya F-16s- none of which will be grey!
But right next to them is
my growing Airfix collection.
This is quite a recent addition
to the shelves, but kits like
the 1/48 scale Supermarine
Walrus and BP Defiant were
just too good to resist. Then I
had to go buy a Victor, so it only
seemed fair to add a Valiant to
the collection as well, and of
course who could resist a radial-
engine Lancaster? Not me!
So, I thought at least that
I had managed to avoid 1/
scale; though I have done the odd
airliner in the past, I had none on
the shelf. Then I found a small
box containing some E-Day entry
kit Me-262s that I had acquired
a few years ago at the show.
So basically, my stash just
about covers every period and
scale in some shape or form, and
that was before I even started
to look at the accessories that I
have in 12 storage boxes or the
eight box files of decals that I
will of course, use someday.
So where do I start? As I write
this, I have spent three days
procrastinating as to which kit
will be first off the bench – so
many choices and so much time
to decide. What a luxury!
But the biggest learning from
my pondering is just how many
subjects that I have wanted for
years are sitting on my shelf. I
would never have thought 10years ago that I would be able to
build a 1/32 Grumman Bearcat
or Tigercat, and a new tool 1/
scale Defiant was highly unlikely.
So, the next model you see
from me in the next issue will
be thinning my pile, unless
we have another model show
in the next few weeks!
Until next time enjoy
your magazine.David Francis, Editor
[email protected]EXCLUSIVE!
44 First Look
Wingnut Wings 1/
Junkers D.1 Fighter4 • MAY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
WELCOME
Scale Aviation Modeller International
May 2018 • Volume 24 • Issue 5004-05-Contents-0518.indd 4 13/04/2018 14: