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The Airfix Stirling came out in 1966 so that has to be borne in mind if you intend to build it. Most if not all of the external panel detail will be raised. In fact, at that period, Airfix tended to represent panel lines with excessive rivet detail. The Stirling also is festooned with rivets.
If I am building a vintage Airfix kit of this era these days, one of the first things I would do is sand away all the rivet detail and maybe rescribe the panel lines.
Internal detail will also be quite minimal although not much of this would be seen anyway. One of the good things about the Airfix kit is that it came with a nice model of an RAF bomb train and tractor.
The kit is still produced from time to time by Airfix so you will see it in the "modern" red boxes.
The Italeri Stirling is much more modern (2014) and they have produced it in two versions - the standard B.I/III bomber and a glider tug/paratroop variant with the front turret replaced by a perspex nose. Being a modern kit, it is much more refined with plenty of internal details. Its flaw is that the panel lines are way too pronounced although, like the Airfix rivets, that can be sorted.
I think much the same goes for the Sunderland kits. One of the variants of the Sunderland available from Italeri is the early Mk.I
If I am building a vintage Airfix kit of this era these days, one of the first things I would do is sand away all the rivet detail and maybe rescribe the panel lines.
Internal detail will also be quite minimal although not much of this would be seen anyway. One of the good things about the Airfix kit is that it came with a nice model of an RAF bomb train and tractor.
The kit is still produced from time to time by Airfix so you will see it in the "modern" red boxes.
The Italeri Stirling is much more modern (2014) and they have produced it in two versions - the standard B.I/III bomber and a glider tug/paratroop variant with the front turret replaced by a perspex nose. Being a modern kit, it is much more refined with plenty of internal details. Its flaw is that the panel lines are way too pronounced although, like the Airfix rivets, that can be sorted.
I think much the same goes for the Sunderland kits. One of the variants of the Sunderland available from Italeri is the early Mk.I
caterhamnut said:
Much difference between the 2 makes Eric?
I built the Airfix Sunderland (stricly OOB!) a few years ago for a fellow PH'er. It's a basic kit, but went together fairly well. If you threw some aftermarket at it, it would probably look better than the Italeri versions, which have horribly over-exaggerated panel lines, and correcting them would be a nightmare. If I was doing the Airfix Sunderland again, I'd throw all the aftermarket etch and resin intended for the Italeri kit at it.
I don't think raised rivet detail is necessarily a bad thing; on this particular model I dont think it looks particularly bad. If you opted to sand and re-scribe you'd just be:
a) Making a load of work for yourself,
and
b) Be substituting one load of over-scale detail for another.
In other words it would probably look worse than if you'd left well alone. The real issue is replacing any raised detail lost through sanding, although there are methods if you're really dedicated.
The glazing framing isn't really there at all on the AIrfix kit, but careful masking can overcome this.
Most of the above applies to the Airfix Stirling too. Again, I'd go for the Airfix version and update it. You also get a nice little RAF tractor and some bomb trolleys.
Here are a few images of the Sunderland:
Cleaned-up parts.
I used a steel punch to make circular porthole masks, although the glazing is a poor fit and some portholes are badly deformed in their centres.
The bombs were in halves which didn't match up. This required more filler. I added some red bands by cutting up an old Matchbox 1/32 Spitfire tail flash. Much easier than painting! I also drilled the back of the bombs to make them a bit less bulky, but it's obviously impossible to drill a round hole concentric with an oval solid! The prop spinners are all wrong, so I tried to make them more realistic by painting the white to about the right size, and leaving the rest black.
Upper wing roundels are about 2mm too large: they should be a bit further outboard, but as they are they would touch the ailerons and the black l/e strip.
I added some reflectors to the wing lights out of punched foil - they look good although the clear glazing is not a good fit to the wing l/e.
There is absolutely no framing on the screens or the turrets. All the framing is done by looking at 3-view drawings and photos, and masking the glass bits before overspraying first with interior green followed by outer surface colour.
ETA here’s the Italeri version for comparison:
http://www.plasticmodelsworld.com/node/1070
Edited by dr_gn on Saturday 24th November 18:28
Eric Mc said:
I've seen the Airfix Stirling made up many times and it can look very good.
I made mine when I was 12/13 years old. It came out absolutely terrible. The wing bomb-doors? Didn't fit at all, and I hadn't learned to dry-fit and fettle parts first. I still have it, on top of a kitchen cupboard, but it's badly smashed up, with the exceedingly tall undercarriage snapped off.It's years since I built a model kit, and I've got loads knocking about, some part built. But I've always been a strictly "as it comes" out of the box builder, and a brush-painter.
yellowjack said:
Eric Mc said:
I've seen the Airfix Stirling made up many times and it can look very good.
I made mine when I was 12/13 years old. It came out absolutely terrible. The wing bomb-doors? Didn't fit at all, and I hadn't learned to dry-fit and fettle parts first. I still have it, on top of a kitchen cupboard, but it's badly smashed up, with the exceedingly tall undercarriage snapped off.It's years since I built a model kit, and I've got loads knocking about, some part built. But I've always been a strictly "as it comes" out of the box builder, and a brush-painter.
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