CHARITYTROPHY
SAM’s Assistant Editor Karl Robinson joins in with IPMS Birmingham's annual charity fund raising efforts...
Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star
Availability: Hasegawa stockists via
www.hasegawa-model.co.jp Amerang -
www.amerang.co.uk Stock Code: JS-038 Scale: 1:72
Paints Used: Tamiya Acrylics: XF-1 Flat Black XF-7 Flat Red XF-19 Sky Grey Alclad II Lacquers: ALC-101 Aluminium Citadel Acrylics: Blazing Orange
trepidation to members of IPMS Birmingham as it means it is time for the annual 'Charity Trophy'. The rules are very straightforward in that each member donates a kit, or kits, appropriately wrapped in festive paper into a large Santa sack. Once all have been collected together, each member can take a lucky dip for the princely sum of just £2.00. Their 'bounty' must then be completed for the March meeting three months later, using only what you receive in the box, and nothing else.
A
On some occasions in the past, a few ingenious members have managed to incorporate
s each Christmas rolls around it brings with it excitement and
parts of the cardboard box into their model as a form of scratch building and adding details. Failure to complete on time means a forfeit of a further £3.00 into the charity pot as a penalty. Once all the models are on display the membership then vote for their favourite and the winner receives the presentation plaque for the next 12 months.
This is all great fun as it is an
event where you can definitely find the unexpected in your hands. Kits that appear are very much those that have been delivered by the Ghost of Christmas past, or from the Land of Kits Long Forgotten, dug out from the dark and dusty recesses of modellers stashes that have not seen the light of day in years.
Sometimes you can end up
with a real ‘turkey’ of a kit, and others times a little gem. In last years 'competition' I pulled out a very old boxing of Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star with Japanese Air Self Defence Force decals. A good kit for its day, back in the late 1960s, but very dated by today's standards with a thick single piece clear canopy, minimal cockpit, raised surface details, and an overall questionable fit; although in the grand scheme of things it is a golden gem in terms of what can be pulled out!
So began the process of attempting to turn a sow's
ear
into a silk purse. Looking at the fit of the kit I could see there would be problems around the base of the tail and also around the intake sections. Both would require considerable filling and sanding so I decided that I would re-scribe the entire airframe as most detail in these areas would be lost anyway.
Luckily there are not too
many panel lines on the kit, and they are mostly straight, so it is a relatively easy task. My preferred method is to use thinly cut strips of Dymo tape to guide the pin vise along for clean straight lines. This was all done prior to any construction taking place as the job is far easier to scribe on individual pieces.
As construction progressed it
became clear that more and more areas would need filling, such as the wing roots, tailplanes, and most significantly the underside airbrakes which were terrible. So bad was the fit here that I ended up filling in the entire area with the doors closed and just re-scribed the outlines to mark the outlines. The thick canopy was a little scuffed due to its age so it was given the once over with the SAM 4-way miracle polisher to bring it back to a perfect shine.
In order to pull off a good
natural metal finish, the model needs to
have a perfectly smooth and blemish-free surface. Initially the plastic was polished before a base coat of black and light grey was applied, which will offer subtle tonal variation to the final finish.
A gloss coat was applied and
buffed up to a perfect shine (SAM 4-way miracle polisher again!) before the application of Alclad Airframe Aluminium. After decalling a further gloss coat was added, using Johnsons Klear, to provide protection and seal everything in. Yet more polishing ensued to give the final finish a beautiful shine.
This small and enjoyable
competition gives new life to some of those kits that would maybe never usually see the light of day, let alone get built, but most importantly acts as a fund raiser for our local charities. Even though many of us complete the kits, we still put in the extra £3.00 'penalty' as it is all for a good cause.
Despite some excellent
competition, and some miracles performed by some members with terrible kits, my little T-33A came out as the overall winner! More importantly though, the final figure of over £150.00 was donated to this year’s chosen local charity, Acorns Hospice, which offers care and respite to children suffering from life- limiting or life-threatening conditions.
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