Early birds galore from dj...

Following Brian’s call, here’s a few of my earlier attempts at modeling… Unfortunately I do not have any pics of my very early days, so all those we built after I joined a local model club and had learned a few little things (like painting models rather than buying kits whose plastic looked like the scheme of the aircraft…!).

Anyway, here we go: (and sorry for the quality of the pics!)


This trio of pics shows Hasegawa’s 1/72 P-51D Mustang (did not look too bad, but my puttying and sanding skills still had to be improved, and there were some little ‘bumps’ on the top of the nose, but you can not see them from this pic!), Tamiya’s 1/100 Me-262 and Aifix 1/72 Me-163 Komet, with my first attempt at ‘diorama’, with a FlaK tower, a false bombed over airstrip and a few figures. This Komet was maybe a touch too glossy… but I just loved it! Those were built in 1979 and 1980.

OK, next is a Oeffag D.III, modified from a 1/72 ESCI Albatross D.III. The spiral cammo was litteraly written over with a Rotring pen, and the decals were home-made (now you can buy those decals and the spiral pattern on decal…!). This dates back to… 1986. I was 20…

Next is, and you’ll have to believe me here, a portion of a huge ‘diorama’ with the 6 Blue Angels Skyhawk, plus crew, pilots and some vehicles, built from the 1/48 Skyhawk and Ground crew kits of ESCI. This was the ‘center piece’ of a Blue Angels collection I built in 1983-84, with all the other airplanes in 1/72, including the Hellcat, Bearcat, Panther, Cougar, Tiger, Phantom II, TA-4J, TV-2 and Connie that got flattened out a few days after this pic was taken, when a perspex panel that was supposed to keep little hands away fell onto them… [B)] I never completed Fat Albert after that… I only have 2 (blury) pics of those models…[xx(]

GOOD GOLLY !!!

A diorama with all 6 of the Blue Angels A-4’s with people and vehicles? In 1/48th? I know Brits can be a bit eccentric, but…WOW ! [;)]

Wow DJ I sure do wish you had more pics of those Blue Angels… what a neat diorama! What a shame they got flattened like that.

Hey DJ,
I really like your early stuff! That blue Angels dio looks and sounds really cool. Shame we can’t see the rest of it!

Thanks for sharing,

Darren.

Thanks for the peek at your pics.

Man, I’d love to see the whole Blue Angels dio!! It sounds fantastic.

You were a fine modeler even way back then, Domi!
I like the 1/100 262. Nice camo!

Tamiya has recently re-released all those old 1/100 and 1/50 scale AC kits.

Yeah I saw that too, Brian. For nostalgia’ sake I might even buy that 1/100 Me-262 again. And their Komet too. And their Saab Draken and Viggen… If I remember well, I applied Humbrol paints #65 for the underside and HG1/HG2 extra dark and dark greens on the upper surfaces. That’s what books were telling me at the time, but of course we know better now… The mottle cammo was done with a little bit of sponge. A trick my Dad taught me…! Thanks for your nice words, Brian. Those models were OK, I guess but I was trying to emulate many other club members who had much better final products than mine!

I thought about getting those Tamiya Saabs, too! Simple, but nice.
Sponges! I used to use that technique when I was building dinosaurs. No AB!

You never cease to amaze me, Dj. Fine looking models, my friend.

Some nice stuff there, Domi ! At least you’ve got pics to prove your Blue Angel’s diorama wasn’t “the fish that got away !”
Good work.

the pics look good.

joe

very nice pics dj