Scotia Grendel 1/300 LAGG-3 - Part 3

Funnily enough this is the part of the project I haven't been looking forward to - applying the decals.

I suppose it should be one of the easier parts of the job - maybe - but I find the Finnish emblems quite tricky to apply so they look 'straight'. The Finnish hakenkreuz never seems to line up properly (for me anyway), and no sooner do I get one of the 'arms' of the swastika lining up with one part of the wing or whatever than it you notice it looks out of line with another part.

The painting was very enjoyable. Though one of the foibles of working with a white metal models seems to be that there is no such thing as a smooth flat surface!

No matter how hard you try to paint a straight line the imperceptibly undulating metal surface causes your line to look 'wobbly'! In the end you learn to compensate by painting counter wobbly lines, which seems to even things up nicely.

I'm also pleased with the olive green colour - which is Revell's 361 Olive Green - as it isn't as flat as some of Vellejo's olive greens. It's nice and rich.

The windows turned out OK, I went for the simple option and just outlined a Vellejo's (961) Sky Blue with some plain white. I didn't even bother blending the white in for a gradiated look.

Finally, I hate yellow! I've been using Valleho's (953) Flat Yellow but it's a horrible consistency and takes a few thin layers to build up a decent rich yellow. I found myself continually going back and touching up parts of the yellow theatre panels. Worst bit of the job.

Hey ho. Nearly there - and as I said, on the whole it's been a really nice relaxing little diversion. Next I have to decide if I am adding a transparent plastic 'propeller' disc and attach the stand.

Raiden '1/300' Finnish fighter aircraft arrive

Part of the order for '1/300' aircraft models I made at the start of the month was to the Raiden company of America. They have finally winged their way across the pond and landed on my door matt yesterday. So let's have a look...

The order was for a F2A Buffalo, a Fiat G.50 and a P-40F Warhawk - all candidates for my little Finnish air force. Of all of these aircraft it is perhaps the Buffalo which is most closely associated with the Finn's dogged defence of their country. Indeed, they did far better in this much maligned obsolete American fighter that did any of it's other users (particular the RAF) scoring a good number of 'kills' with it.

"The Brewster Buffalo earned a reputation in Finnish Air Force service as one
of their more successful fighter aircraft. In service from 1941 to 1945, Buffalos
of Lentolaivue 24 (Fighter Squadron 24) claimed 477 Soviet Air Force warplanes
destroyed, with the combat loss of just 19 Buffalos, an outstanding
victory ratio of 26:1." Source: Wikipedia

The Raiden models are actually 1/285 scale and I'm afraid - unbelievably - you can tell the difference between these and the 1/300 aircraft I got from Scotia Grendel, Raidens being somewhat larger. A shame really as I was hoping the difference would be negligible.

Quality wise I think the Raiden planes may just have the edge with a lot more fine panel-line detail. The amount of flash and quality of white metal used is about on par with the UK firm's models.

Raiden's 1/285 scale planes (top) compared with a couple of Scotia Grendel's
1/300 aircraft. It's hard to tell, but the Raidens are just a tad larger.

I was particularly looking forward to receiving the P-40 Warhawk as the P-36/P-40 Hawk family of fighters is one of my all-time favourites.

Piloted by Sub.Lt.V.A.Ruevin form 191st IAP on 27th December 1943 a P-40M
made a forced landing on the frozen Lake Valkjarvi, Karelian Isthmus. Finns
captured it in perfect condition. It was overhauled at the Mechanics' School
and delivered to HLeLv32 on 2 July, 1944. It was used till 12th February 1945.
Artist: © Jouni Ronkko 'Jones' - Source: Wings Palette web site

The last little plane is a very cute little Italian Fiat G.50. Once again the Finn's squeezed every last drop of effectiveness out of this obsolete design gaining a unprecedented kill/loss ratio of 33/1 [Wikipedia].

Source: Wikipedia

As with my earlier Scotia Grendel delivery these little models are just a whim on my part and not really part of a serious project. They are just something fun to do when I need a rest from my current 1/72 models!

1/300 Aircraft - Featured work

As I'm new to this 'micro-scale' modelling stuff I thought it a good idea to look around and see if I can find good examples of what can be achieved in this scale so I have a 'bar' to aspire to. It didn't take me long to find some excellently painted 1/300 aircraft models and to realise that I have a lot to learn about painting in this tiny scale!

Featured 1/300 aircraft 1 - 'Matchstick Fleet' by Phil Warren

Incredibly all these planes have been scratch-build out of carved
matchsticks and painted by Phil.

Phil Warren's work is an extreme example of what's possible, but here's another example that's done using commercially available models...

Featured 1/300 aircraft 2 - 'Fitzkrieg!' by Fitz

Yikes! Well, this is a very high bar indeed with some superb painting - and they are even doing the aircraft markings and identification lettering as well!

I'm not sure I am up to that but we'll see how my LAGG-3 turns out in comparison - oh my poor eyes!

Links to featured work:
> 'Matchstick Fleet' by Phil Warren
> 'Fitzkrieg!' by Fitz

Scotia Grendel 1/300 LAGG-3 - Part 2

Ok, I couldn't bear it...I just had to tinker!
I decided to correct the wing profile with just a tiny bit of Milliput. I'm not sure how hardy this modification will be for wargaming, Milliput can dry quite hard but having it so thin on trailing edges like this might be asking for a chip if handled roughly. I won't be using my models for gaming though.

Next was the nose profile. As it was it was a bit too P-40 Warhawk looking, so I added some Milliput on the chin to round out the area between the prop boss and the intake.

LAGG-3, Nurmoila, Finland, March 1943. Artist: © Rick Kent.
More Finnish LAGG-3 schemes at Wings Palette.

Finally, I smoothed out the lower body from the intake to the tail to make it more like the version in use by the Finns. I'm not really that familiar with the numerous versions of this plane but the shape of the fuselage between the tail and center intake seems to be one of the things that differentiates them.

Finally, I smoothed out the lower body from the intake to the tail to make it more like the version in use by the Finns. I'm not really that familiar with the numerous versions of this plane but the shape of the fuselage between the tail and center intake seems to be one of the things that differentiates them.

The aircraft became LG-3 in Finnish service, and was assigned to LeLv 32 during
winter 1942/43; this unit was based based at Nurmoila, on the Olonets isthmus.
Source: mig3.sovietwarplanes.com

At this point should say that this model will never be perfect - I am carrying out these small amendments simply to satisfy my own peculiar obsessive nature. For wargaming this 'marker' is quite adequate to represent this type of aircraft - doing this sort of fiddling about will not improve it's ability to act as a 'piece' in a game. (I perhaps should have put this paragraph at the top of the post.)

But in a strange way this sort of fiddling about is what I enjoy most about modelling and why I continually buy cheap wargame models and spend so much time trying to make them look better than they perhaps ought to be. In short, were we talking houses I would be the guy that likes 'fixer uppers'!

Anyway - back to the LAGG-3.

The new 'improved' wing shape - symmetrical and more accurate.

It's the next morning now, I like to give Milliput a whole night to cure properly. This extra time really makes the material quite solid and it sands better in my opinion. I suppose the ideal is that you would have a couple of jobs on the go so you could set one aside to cure while you get on with another (and indeed that is what I did in this case).

The finished profile - a little more like the real aircraft (hopefully).

Now, preparation work done it's time to start the painting process. Again, I am just guessing the best way to do this - I haven't found a 1/300 model tutorial online - so I am going to approach this as I would a larger scale kit and prime it grey to begin with. As this model is white metal this seems to make sense to me.

Now, finally, to the big question. Hand brush or airbrush?

At 1/300 scale I am far more tempted to have - at least on this test model - a go with hand painting the model. An airbrush or aerosol spray seems overkill (unless you were doing a batch of these for a wargame).

As for the paint scheme, well as you have seen with some of the reference photos I've included there is very good historical information on the exact colour schemes to be applied to the Finnish LAGG-3s. In fact, as there were only 3 of these fighters in service with the Finns there is exact schemes for each of these specific aircraft - AND, my favoured example of 'LG-3' (see above photo) there are two specific schemes, one for up to 1944 and one after 1944. SO no problem there!

For more information on these Finnish LAGG-3s go to mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/lagg3/

Next: Painting the LAGG-3.

Oh! PS...The little transparent plastic stand doesn't come with the model. This has to be bought separately. I got mine from Scotia Grendel at the cost of £1.50 for a pack of five.

Scotia Grendel 1/300 LAGG-3 - Part 1

Owing to a really annoying problem with my current project I decided to switch over to one of the little white metal aircraft models that I bought from Scotia Grendel. I am hoping that by the time I finish this mini-project that I might have solved the issues I am having with my larger 1/72 scale model. We'll see.

Anyway, of the half-dozen aircraft I got from Scotia Grendel I decided that the LAGG-3 would have the dubious honour being my very first 1/300 scale victim. The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 was a Soviet design constructed almost entirely from wood-laminate and in 1941 it was considered to be one of the Red Air Force's most advanced fighters. Unfortunately it seems that that didn't mean all that much in the face of opponents like the Me-109 and it proved unpopular with pilots.

My interest in this plane is derived from the fact that Finland operated 3 captured examples of this fighter. Though as far as I was able to determine the captured LAGGs didn't particularly distinguish themselves as I can only find one mention of a 'kill' made by one of them (which is particularly poor considering some of the impressive talleys scored by the tenacious Finns in even older and technically obsolete aircraft).

Source: Wikipedia

The Scotia Grendel model
At 1/300 scale I don't suppose I was expecting much in the way of detail, much less so as the model is made using my nemesis medium - white metal! And - quelle surprise! - this model didn't change any preconceptions I had.

Looking decidedly more P-40 than LAGG-3 I think this plane has been on a diet!

Even though it is small I was still a little disappointed in some of the apparent inaccuracies. For example, one of the most noticeable features is the wing shape, here Scotia Grendel just seem to have got it plain wrong. Though this may, in part, be to do with the amount I ended up filing off the trailing edges in order to make the overall shape of the main wings symmetrical. (So you will have to decide - fatter asymmetrical wing profile, or thinner symmetrical profile!)

As a tabletop wargame marker I think it's quite important that the wing silhouette is as accurate as can be - given that is the most readily identifiable feature of these tiny models as you look at them from above and at a distance.

The top-down profile. Inset is the correct profile, having cleaned up the model's
wings for symmetry they are now too straight and narrow towards the tips.

Source: Wikipedia

There were other tiny gaffs too, which I could list but I'll let the accompanying photos - and the reference pictures - speak for themselves. I don't really want to start out my 1/300 scale enterprise by heaping a load of criticism onto a type of model I have very little experience of - after all, as these are my very first examples of the scale I have no idea if the quality is the 'norm'. (Not for the first time recently I have had to remind myself that a model I am dealing with was made with wargaming - and not display - in mind).

Anyhoo. As I am really using this particular aircraft model as a test model - as I work out strategies for working with the scale - I am prepared to wright this one off to a certain extent. I got to work doing what cleaning up there was with a fine file. There wasn't a lot of flash and the amount of pitting was acceptable and neither destroyed much detail so it doesn't take long to complete.

Here's the original shot I took of the newly arrived 1/300 fighter. As you can
see the LAGG - left - has some flash on the nose and tail and you may be able
to make out the fatter right wing compared to the thinner/straighter left wing.

Next: In the next part I begin the painting of the model.

1/300 scale white metal aircraft by Scotia Grendel

How low can you go? How about 6mm scale (1/285 or 1/300) miniatures?

A while ago I did a couple of 1/144 aircraft models, I never intended on getting into aircraft kits but I needed a few examples for my Finnish Rapid Fire force. Well, much to my surprise I really enjoyed doing them and a lot of it had to do with the challenge of working with the smaller scale.

As soon as I finished those petite planes I promised myself I would return to the subject later 'when I had the time'. Well aside from never really having the time to do the stuff I really should be working on - never mind branching out into other types of models - it's hard to see when I might get space to do any more planes with my current list of jobs in progress!

But I do like to have a bit of a break between projects - so what to do?

Well, how about doing some even smaller planes? Very small projects that literally cannot take up too much time, but will be time enough to give me a rest between my bigger (1/72) projects!

One of my all-time favourite aircraft - the Curtis P20 (Hawk 75), the plane
that was the precursor to the beautiful P40! And only 30mm long!

Enter the wacky world of 1/300 scale aircraft!
I heard about 1/300 scale while talking to a member of my local wargaming club on Facebook. '1/300?' I thought 'Isn't that ridiculously small?' (Before realizing there ate 1/600 aircraft and even smaller scales on the market!)

1/300 scale bombers of the Finnish Air Force. Left to right: Bristol Blenheim
Mark IV (Long Nose), Dornier Do-17 and Blenheim NF (A1).

Anyway, what swung it for me was that I am a bit short of finances at the moment (as she who must be obeyed want a holiday in Rome this year) and 1/300 aircraft are a pittance to buy.

So off I went and found a UK manufacturer - Scotia Grendel Productions - who make an interesting range of historic models in this diminutive scale. The theme I gave myself was Finnish aircraft of WW2 - as I had already done a fair amount of research in this area.

Fighters of the Finnish Air Force. Left to right: Lagg 3, Me109 and the
Curtis Hawk. The Finn's were eclectic - they had to be!

In purchasing my little air force I was pretty indiscriminate - I hadn't done any research on who's the best manufacturer or which is the best model or how to paint 1/300 models. I just bought a handful and thought I'd see what happens!

The 'Finnish Air Force of WW2' is really quite an interesting project that provides the modeller (of whatever prefered scale) a lot of variety. They acquired aircraft from anywhere they could and because they sort of jumped from one 'side' to another in the war they got them from both the Allies and the Axis. In fact, it seems the only major belligerent in the war they didn't have an aircraft from was the Japanese (and I wouldn't be surprised if someone emailed me to say 'well actually...')!

Left: Signals 'Finnish Air Force 1939-45' is a superb record of the myriad of types the Finns flew. And I just happened to already have a copy, what luck!

First impressions
Well...Yep...They are small! I guess that's not going to be a surprise to you - what was a surprise was how Scotia managed to do some of the fine detail on these tiny models and in white metal of all things!

It's a bit hit and miss though, but in the case of the Blenheims you can actually make out the radial engine inside the engine cowl! However, as always with white metal, there is some amount of pitting and also some flash and in some cases this ruins some of the detail there is (the Me109 is a bit of a carbuncle).

As I said, I don't know if Scotia are a great manufacturer, but they seem to be well thought of. But you have to start somewhere. That said I did locate a company called Raiden Miniatures who do aircraft in 1/285th scale (why there are two very small scales so close together is a mystery to me - I suspect it's something like the 1/76 and 1/72 'thing'). Anyway, I can't see why 1/285 and 1/300 won't be comparable -unless you are a real nitpicker - so I bought a few of their planes to to compare the quality of their model to those of Scotia's (but they haven't arrived yet).

So, all in all, I have plenty of variety now and shouldn't get bored doing models because I can have a crack at some of me wee planes if I do start to feel a bit weary of trucks, tanks or figures. Just don't expect much - I'm not! :D