Phabulous

The F-4 Phantom has, and always will be, a favorite of mine. The bent-wing, bent-tailed, gas-guzzling dump truck that poses as an interceptor may not be pretty, but you have to admit if an aircraft ever got pumped up full of steroids and testosterone, this would be it.

My first Phantom kit would probably be the old 72nd Matchbox kit (I think I posted about that a few years back). Then my mom sent me this massive box with 5 Revell F-4Es - the old Thunderbirds set, back in the 70s. Oh what joy - the dogfights we had then. Then I remember one of my favorite uncles getting a 48th scale  one. Yes, they come in bigger sizes. 

This is a tribute to all those Phantoms of the past. The Italeri F-4J, done as the CAG bird of VF-102 "Diamondbacks" circa 1968. Along with another Italeri J, done as a "Tomcatter" of VF-31, they were all part of a nice club display involving Phantoms we did to celebrate its 50th year. 

Keep on building.

So I laid an egg

And the egg hatched. Leave it to the Japanese to think of something as crazy as making airplanes look like... eggs. Its up there with anime eyes and manga hair. Here's the Hasegawa F-4J Phantom eggplane. Mean and menacing isn't it? I got this online and I had a ball building this - the utter lack of reference photos and panel lines just blew my mind and I loved every single second of it. And it isn't just the Phantom. Hasegawa released a whole slew of eggplanes in the 1970s and its all back with a vengeance. Kabuto Koji!!!

Bug me

And it took me 6 months to actually realize that it is now the year 2008. Its getting to be long and rare since the last post, but we'll try and remedy that. A lot of plastic has been cracked open and built since November, and a lot of memories are being build up with every build. And that's the point of it all, isn't it?

At any case, here's something I got from a very memorable trip to Manila. Its one of the newer kits from one of the newer kit makers in the block. And if this is anything to go about the shape of things to come for the hobby, then its never been a better time to be a modeller.

Its the 1/48 Hobby Boss F/A-18A Hornet. It took me three trips to Greenhills to decide if I really wanted to get it, but I did in the end. And what trips! I ate at Chowking once, Max's twice, and Yellow Taxi (a pizza place) once. Its all about the food now.

What a pfeiling!

I hated to do it, but there are so many puns with this plane's name. This is the Tamiya 1/48 Dornier 335A Pfeil (Arrow). Its a big kit, and a beauty to build. It is so seriously nice building, I am so relaxed throughout the entire process. No worries with fit, markings, decals anything. It even comes with a metal nose weight. Tamiya even provided a massive printed camo scheme guide which you use a template for painting. If this is how model kits have progressed from the 80s, then... WOW! Keep 'em coming! I Pfeil good!

Fascination

Ever since seeing bright red F/A-18 Super Hornets in VFA-102 "Diamondbacks" CAG colors in the last Australian airshow, I have been on a Navy plane binge. Phantoms, Hornets, Orions, Crusaders, Tomcats, Corsairs, Prowlers... did I say Phantoms? Being a fan of the new re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series hasn't helped either. Its been a gull grey, hi-viz kaleidoscope since, a plethora of dull highlighted by red, black, yellow and double nuts. At the rate I am going, I am probably going to have a Carrier air group ready in a few months, and needing the space to display it all. I'll probably start doing what carriers do; start folding wings, hang things off edge and maybe send a few of the birds up on CAP and get that Alert 5 bird on the catapult.

So here is the latest addition to the air group. Hasegawa's F/A-18 Super Hornet in Lo-viz markings of VFA-103 "Jolly Rogers" and Revell's P-3C Orion (re-boxed Hasegawa) Update III in VP-30 out of NAS Jacksonville, FL. Both in 1/72 scale and finished around the same time (there was a warm day that freakily hit Melbourne in the middle of winter.) (It helps airbrushing.)

Big guns

I picked this 1/35 Trumpeter Emil Sturer (short nickname for the SonderkraftzerlungIdontknowwhat!) in 2005 on my last visit to Manila. Its a mighty big gun! I was so excited in building it, it took me all of one week to build, paint and finish it. There were only two built back in WW2, but with Trumpeter blaring out the charge of the young turks in the model manufacturing industry, we can expect a lot of new stuff. The big guns of the past, Tamiya, Revell, Hasegawa, Italeri, and to a degree, even Airfix, are not alone anymore. There has never been a better time to be a plastic modeller; well, maybe until next month's releases.

The Sundowner

What is it with me and Navy aircraft nowadays? Upon seeing the Diamondbacks on display at the recent Aussie airshow, I can't get enough of gull gray aircraft with colorful markings. Anything with either a CAG or double nuts for numbers. Good heavens, does this mean I have found a niche?

I am currently undergoing a US Navy plane phase. It didn't start this year though. Last Christmas a good friend in IPMS gave me a present. The Hasegawa 1/72 F-8E Crusader in VF-111 markings, circa 1966. Having seen the plane in "Dogfights" action (courtesy of the History Channel), I was very pleased that this came around when it did, and it did come out rather pretty. Face it, shark-mouths work.

But its all about the story behind it, as this blog goes. This is another story of how giving is better than recieving. Simon really wanted that other kit, and I was more than happy to give it to him. Looketh what generosity hath wrought.