Oh well, I suppose it doesn't look TOO bad...well, at least from SOME angles.
Here it is again in company with an Otaki 1/48 Mk VIII also converted to Mk IX. Remember that this was long before even ICM and Hasegawa turned out their 1/48 Mk IX kits.
And here's the first one I did, probably close to thirty years ago. Not a great model by my current standards and wearing bogus markings because of a lack of adequate decal resources, but at least the nose is the right length!
For the type of photography I do with my models, I need realistic aircrew figures in authentic flying kit. Fortunately for me, I once owned a large collection of wartime flying kit, so I'm very familiar with the various types and can reproduce them fairly well in miniature, right down to 1/72 scale.
Here we have the Hasegawa kit-supplied pilot figure dressed up with a Type G oxygen mask, built up with putty, scrap plastic and with paper for the straps. The C type helmet has had its earphones replaced, again with scrap plastic, and had some refinement to its profile. The goggles as moulded by Hasegawa are a reasonable attempt at the unwieldy Mk IV type, but these were not popular and had largely disappeared by the mid-war years, to be replaced by the far more practical (and hugely popular) Mk VIII pattern. Some slight modifications turned them into the desired Mk VIIIs. As an interesting aside, the basic design of the RAF's Mk VIII goggles is STILL being copied to this day by the makers of motorcycle accessories!
You'll have noticed in the above picture that my pilot is now looking to the left. In addition to the helmet and mask detailing, I removed the head from the body, gave it a neck and made it so that it would swivel. I tilt the model and...hey presto, he turns his head to look the other way! Of course there's no danger of the head falling out of the hole in the top of the body because the canopy won't allow it.
Oh, and I mould all my own canopies too. There's little point in doing such detail work if you're only going to spoil it with the distortion inherent in injection-moulded canopies. Even in this fairly large scale, they're still too thick and never look realistic...or at least I don't think so anyway.
I recently bought myself an expensive high-definition video camera which, I'm delighted to discover, can also take still photographs. I've joined the 21st Century at long last! I'm amazed at how close I can get with it, but this is probably a little TOO close...as it shows up what I thought to be some pretty nifty modelling as quite rough in reality!
The model is old and a bit knocked around now, but at least I've still got it. I may yet get around to removing the nose and rectifying the length deficiency. All the same, though, this old thing is going to be completely overshadowed by the new Tamiya Mk IX that followed me home from a trip to the city yesterday! Now my only problem is deciding what to do with this gorgeous new kit...shall I make it a flier, or put it on its wheels with the cockpit all opened up?
Cheers everyone!
Tim.
