Airfix Westland Whirlwind stage 1 and 2

I am building this as part of the Britmodeller group build.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showforum=286

The rules are that you can only use what you get in the Airfix starter kit plus a few basic tools. I haven't finished a model plane kit for about ten years and that was a 1/48 one (a Zero) but I did start a 1/48 Spitfire before Christmas, much encouraged by meeting James May (not to mention Arthur Ward) and talking about Airfix kits for a while.

http://legatuswargamesarmies.blogspot.com/2009/11/james-mays-toy-fair.html

The first thing I noticed when I opened the box, therefore was how small the blooming thing was! Only 34 parts but most of them seem to be for the undercarriage. I used to hate making undercarriages and always made my planes with the wheels up if possible and mounted them on Airfix's lovely clear stands (they seem to have stopped doing those for some reason).

So on to sections 1 and 2 of the instructions: a very basic cockpit build and then inserting it into the two halves of the fuselage.

I only have six paints to work with (and they are acrylics... ugh!) so doing any shading on the pilot figure was tricky.

I used the duck egg blue to lighten the flight suit and do the shirt collar but the real challenge was his face. I had two choices: paint his face yellow so that he looks like one of the Simpsons or go for a green-grey look so he looks like a zombie. I went for the zombie look and hope he doesn't look too bad when he is behind the canopy.

Thanks to Sue the postie for some extra rubber bands when I needed them!

After I had done the pilot (no undercoating is allowed so the paint kept rubbing off) I glued the two halves of the fuselage together. These went together really well and after the glue had dried I carefully scraped the join with a modelling knife and got a pretty good seam.

So far I have discovered the following: I reallly hate acrylics! You mix some up and its dry before you can get in on! You also have to thin it with water or its like painting with fromage frais. Then, of course, you need lots of coats. Why its so popular for painting figures is beyond me. I suspect its because people use ready made colours for shading out the pot whereas I mix all of mine on a paper palette. The brushes in the starter kit aren't too bad but I miss my Windsor & Newton No 7 sables. The Airfix polystyrene cement (the smell is nostalgic: I started using superglue on plastic kits years ago) is runnier than the Revell stuff I bought for my Wargames Factory Zulus.

Well that's the easy bit (or at least the familiar bit) done. Next step is to make the propellors and wings.

My own influences...

Both Matt and Fraxinus have been having a bout of nostalgia on their blogs; looking at their early influences on their interest in wargaming.

Many of our influences are the same, not surprisingly (Fraxinus and I lived very close together when we were young), but some are different. So now its time to drag a few relics out of my collection and bung them under the scanner!

My main influence was my father who fought in the Second World War in North Africa. This meant that the very first proper wargames I played against other opponents were Western Desert ones. My main opponents were my classmates: Bean kid, Cess-Pitts and Jimbo (we all had nicknames at my school except John Palmer who was too boring to have one-I was "The General"). I wrote the rules for this and, typically, revolving as they did around AFVs, they were fixated on relative armour thickness. Very good news for me if you were the Afrika Korps and could field loads of Tigers and Panthers against Bean-kid and Cess' Lee/Grants and Shermans! Oddly, thanks to Airfix I still think of the name of that tank as the Lee/Grant rather than identifying each version with its individual name! My main source of information on WW2 was the Purnell History of the Second World War; an immense part-work (and still the best part-work ever issued) which seemed to go on for nearly as long as the real war! I still have every copy in their binders and nearly all of the one-off specials which had great artwork by John Batchelor.

Later I learnt more about my grandfather (who I can barely remember other than the fact that he wore incredibly thick brown suits even in the middle of summer) who started in WW1 in the KRRC and then transferred to the RFC. Even later I found out that my Uncle Keith (who died a few years ago but not without leaving me some WW1 German pickelhauben and cases and cases of classed growth claret) was in the Airborne Division at Arnhem but was so shell shocked he spent over a year in hospital afterwards. He never spoke about it until about two months before he died when he came out with a whole load of funny stories; including the fact that the airborne troops were used as human ballast when the glider pilots were being trained, as they were quicker to load than sandbags. He said he had to endure about twenty crash landings as a result!

I actually came to Airfix 20mm figures rather late, as my initial interest in Airfix had been in aircraft and battleships. Certainly, the first ones I acquired were the Napoleonic ones at the time of the film Waterloo. I loved everything about this film and my father bought me the programme (you used to get illustrated programmes for big films in those days). Years later, I picked up a CD of the (memorable) music by Nino Rota in a shop in Rome. I can't say that I have ever seen it anywhere else.

I bought hundreds (maybe thousands) of those cream coloured Airfix Napoleonic figures and my two main sources were Gamleys, the toy shop in Staines, and Johnson & Clarke a large and independent department store in Staines. If you have ever seen Grace Brothers in the old TV series Are you Being Served? then you will get a feeling for what it was like! Bean-kid was an excellent modeller and when the Airfix Waterloo Farmhouse came out he built a model of Hougoumont using plans in Military Modelling magazine. He then added a model of La Haye Sainte and we would have huge two or three day re-enactments of Waterloo in our dining room using two big boards which gave us a 7'x6'8" playing area.

We never painted any of the figures though! Neither did we mount them on stands so if you bumped into the table everyone fell over! At first all our rules came from Terence Wise's book Introduction to Battlegaming but later we progressed to Charles Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming with its 48 man battalions.

I also picked up a great book which I still refer to today: The Armies at Waterloo by Ugo Pericoli, who was the costume designer for the film and contains all his sketches and paintings of uniforms he did for the movie. This was backed up by my first proper uniform book; Rene North's Regiments at Waterloo which helped a great deal as I did paint the large 54mm Airfix Napoleonic kits. I still remember the pain of cutting out all those straps on thin plasticard.

Apart from these social wargaming efforts much of my time was spent on solo wargaming (especially when I was younger), much of it more along the lines of HG Wells' Little Wars than anything scientific. This was especially true of the garden escapades which also involved digging little trenches for my WW1 figures. I had two main periods. Ancients, using the Airfix Romans and Ancient Britons, and World War 2 in the Pacific. The latter was always always fought outside as the Airfix Marines crossed our pond to assault the dug-in Japanese on the rockery. These games could last weeks over the summer holidays, as the tide of battle went to and fro and extra boxes were bought as reinforcements. My mother was still digging up these long lost soldiers, who still think the war is on, nearly forty years later. So for me the most evocative Airfix box is definitely the US Marines one!

I read a review of the new series The Pacific a couple of days ago which said "this conflict has been largely ignored by film makers". Yes, probably if you are a junior 25 year old journalist but for me my main memories of WW2 films are from the many WW2 Pacific films I saw on TV. Guadalcanal, The Sands of Iwo Jima, From the Halls of Montezuma and all those John Wayne ones where he suffers a heroic death at the end. He never died in his Westerns but always did in his war films! I never liked those set in Europe as they always used American tanks for the German ones whereas there was no Japanese armour to get wrong in the Pacific set ones!

The interest in Rome which, unlike WW2, persists to this day was down to the combined possession of my first box of Airfix Romans and my favourite Ladybird book: Julius Caesar and Roman Britain. Watching films like Spartacus and the Fall of the Roman Empire only encouraged me even more to pitch my grey Romans against my reddish-brown coloured Britons.

The last key book for me was Preben Kannik's Military Uniforms in Colour which, like many of my books from those days, is very well loved! It was the pictures in this that got me keen on my last great wargaming period of the Seventies: the American Civil War. Always a popular Airfix period because of the availability of infantry, artillery and, via the US Cavalry, mounted figures.

This early golden age finished on December 31st 1975. I went to a New Years Eve party at the parents of one of my mother's friends. Most of the people there were my mother's age but there were two sisters who were 15 and 17 years old. They had that short, late Seventies, hair and very tight dresses. We all got quite drunk on home made wine and disappeared outside into the garden where they taught me how to French kiss (firstly by demonstrating on each other!). Next day I had a wargame with the guys from school but I didn't really get into it as, firstly, I had a hangover andn secondlyn Airfix tanks had suddenly lost their primacy in my most wanted list.

Oddly, when I started university in September 1979 I met a girl, C, who I had originally met at interview a year before (I took a year off between school and college) and she got me back into painting figures and tanks again through playing Dungeons and Dragons. We only went along to the Oxford University Dungeons and Dragons Club for a term; mainly because all the other players were scientists (we both did law) and kept including scientific and maths puzzles in the games which we didn't understand! Catherine, a dazzling red-head (the first in a long line at college!), lasted another two terms (although there was some overlap with another one!) before going off with someone who ended up being a top wine writer. I was very pleased to hear that he was later sent down for something dodgy involving his college cellars, we believe. Heh, heh! In college I found out that one of my best friends was also a wargamer but he painted those little blocks of 5mm figures (no individual ones at this point) and I couldn't see the point so I carried on painting WW2 tanks (there was an excellent model shop in Oxford) from Italeri and Esci. They never saw service in a proper wargame but my son plays with them now.

I didn't read WW2 comics when I was young; I got TV21 and Look & Learn which contained the Trigan Empire strip, largely illustrated by the great Don Lawrence. The Trigan Empire would make for a great range of figures! I particularly liked the hover tanks that featured in it and used to build them out of Lego for battles on my carpet. I am now collecting the beautiful books of reprints produced in the Netherlands at enormous expense. I think some of my strange interest (even though I should know beter) in Warhammer 40K comes from my love of the Trigan Empire.

Well the nostalgia continues as I try to get to grips with my Westland Whirlwind!

Schleswig-Holstein infantryman

I am nothing if not easily influenced so when I saw Matt's latest posting about his lovely Schleswig figures I spotted that I had one of his Schleswig infantryman undercoated at the back of the workbench.

http://matratmatt.blogspot.com/

"I know, I'll finish it now!" I thought, putting on some Carl Nielsen to listen to. Lo and behold I had him finished in the time it took to listen to his first two symphonies and the Helios overture.

I found him easier to paint than the Dane and in a way, as the figures are very slight, it was almost like painting one of the bigger 20mm plastics. Its amazing how having finer proportions means less area to cover and, consequently, quicker painting. I have another seven Schelswig infantry (and a lot more Nielsen to listen to) so they will be filed and based tonight.

Since the advent of the Black Powder rules I am looking at nineteenth century wargaming much more again so maybe its ime to build a unit or two.

Airfix Westland Whirlwind

I was intrigued by Fraxinus' post on his Victory V blog about the Britmodeller's Airfix starter set group build. http://fraxinus-victoryv.blogspot.com/2010/03/britmodeller-airfix-starter-set-fun.html

Whilst wandering around Hamley's this week I came across this Westland Whirlwind kit and immediately felt inspired to have a go, despite the fact that I haven't finished an aircraft construction kit for at least ten years (although I have started several!).

The Westland Whirlwind is a plane I had actually completely forgotten existed! It wasn't in front line service for very long (it was replaced by the Hawker Typhoon) but it has that great mid-Thirties twin engine look (like the De Havilland DH88 Comet racer).

The rules of this build mean you have to use the paints, glue and, worse still, the brushes from the set! The build runs from April 2nd to 1st May so let's hope I can get it done in time. At least I should have a bit of time over Easter!

It will have a wargames life eventually as I will be donating it to my son for his World War 2 "carpet wars" whch take up a large portion of our living room floor at any point in time!

Artillery Piece of the Month: Force Publique Mountain Gun

Not really a historical piece, this, but I wanted to give my Belgians something to pound Arab slaver strongholds (not that I have painted any of my Arabs yet!); so it's the Foundry Askari Mountain gun painted up with a Force Publique looking crew.

Belgian Nordenfelt 4.7cm

The Force Publique did use a selection of artillery in later years: including Krupp howitzers and Nordenfelt 4.7cm cannons (which were very similar in size to this mountain gun). They also had bronze 7.5cm cannons for use against the Arab slavers so it's not too much of a stretch to give them this.

Next month's artillery piece will be something for my Tudor period swashbucklers which I recently bought on eBay.

Artillery Piece of the Month

If there is one thing I hate painting more than cavalry it's artillery. I have only painted one artillery piece for my armies and that is this field gun for my Chinese Warlord army. However, I have several model guns floating around at present so have decided to try to get one painted a month. I am starting small with a mountain gun for my Belgian Force Publique force as part of my attempt to boost it a bit from the 48 figues I painted in November. Since then I have painted another 10 figures with five more under way and the addition of the gun will give it a bit more punch. I hope to finish it this weekend./p

I have a new set up for photographing my figures which means that I can use natural light or, as here, daylight bulbs when photographing at night. This removes the nasty flash shadows and also stops washing out pale colours.

Doing a bit more painting...

Vilnius Cathedral this morning (strictly, Vilniaus Šv. Stanislovo ir Šv. Vladislovo arkikatedra bazilika)

I don't know why it never occurred to me that it would be snowy in Vilnius in mid-March. I've been here enough times to know that it gets blooming freezing (-25C the first time I came here) but perhaps I thought that by now it would have become a bit more Spring like. Anyway, everything was still covered in snow when I flew in yesterday and it snowed again quite hard last night. It's now nine o'clock at night (two hours ahead of London time) so I thought I ought to get something down on the blog, especially as I found a few pictures on my camera which I can put up here. In truth, I'm waiting for my friend Ringaile but as she is always late I might as well sit and type whilst drinking a Vodka (very good, Lithuanian vodka) Martini and eating too many nuts.

Ideal complement to blogging. Vodka Martini, nuts, olives and a nice fire. Now all I need is a six foot tall Lithuanian girl...

I've done very little painting over the last six weeks as I am just starting up a new company with a friend and its taking up all our time at present. Can't say that we have actually made any money yet but its looking very promising. Stressful but exciting. If you are the mayor of a major city and need an Oystercard type travel card system, or are a defence minister and need a national command and control system do let me know!

Mutineer Miniatures 53rd Foot

Anyway, last weekend I did get some painting done as I attempted to reduce the number of half painted figures on my desk. I had some success on Saturday as I finished seven of the Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny figures. I've now done eight and have twenty four more on the go. I used the new(ish) Citadel Dead Grass on these which looks quite good.

Mutineer mutineers

I haven't decided which unit the mutineers belong to so haven't given them a number on their hats yet. I am reading Saul David's Indian Mutiny but it's taken about 120 pages before we have had any wargameable action yet. Once I have a better feel for what units were where and who they fought against I can work out what units to paint.

Fancy a jolly roger?

The other big timewaster in the evening, when I could at least be painting some base colours, is that my little boy has got me hooked on Pirates of the Caribbean: the online game. I have never been a computer gamer; I tried Tomb Raider once but found it very boring. All the games Guy has seem too fast moving and complicated for me! I do own one Playstation game (Alias) but that's only because my friend J was the motion capture body double (for Jennifer Garner) for it and I've never managed to play that either.

The lovely J was a respectable infrastructure journalist by day, computer games body double and actress by night! Here she has to interview the Legatus when he was at least two stone heavier, in Berlin a few years ago. Maybe I won't have any more nuts!

Anyway, as a result of all this piratical nonsense I decided to paint up some more pirates and finished this Black Scorpion pirate girlie last weekend as well. I also finished another five Force Publique Belgians and should get another ten done by the end of the weekend hopefully. Guy is keen to have a wargame over Easter so we might do a Legend of the High Seas or Darkest Africa game. Anyway, Ringaile is slinking across the bar and I have just ordered a third Vodka Martini so it could be time to stop...