Painting Challenge entry 3: 15mm Airpower

Some action on the challenge front again with a small entry of 2 15mm airplanes for the fortnight challenge. An Early War Stuka to support my Barbarossa Wehrmacht troops and a Flying Bathtub to support my Paras in their Late War efforts.

Originally I had planned to paint up a 1/72 scale airplane to use in WW2 skirmish with my Red Devils, but alas the cheap plastic kit proved to be my undoing. I struggled to find a kit of the Typhoon and when I finally found one at a store I went for it even though the unknown brand and 8 euro price tag should have made it obvious that the quality was going to be far below average. After about 3 hours of work I just gave up as nothing fit together and a lot of the parts were warped. But at least I learned that I'll never buy anything from Brengun again. Should have stayed to the brands that I know and that have proven to be of good quality :)

I nearly gave up on the fortnight challenge, but then remembered that I had these two little kits stashed up in my cabinet. The Stuka is a Zvezda kit that is extremely simple and is a bit lacking in detail, but on the other hand it's very robust and only took me a couple of minutes to put together. The P-47 is from Revell's Microair range and is far from simple and fast. Considering that these are marketed as perfect first kits etc. it was horrible to put together with a lot of flash and cleaning up left to do. Certainly not a good thing for your first kit. Still it wasn't as bad as the Brengun kit so I soldiered on and got it set up. A bit flimsy for gaming so we'll have to see how it holds up. There were some good news though as the decals with the Revell kit were excellent. Too bad they never sell any of them separate.

Painting wise these were really quick jobs as I had less than two hours to finish them. Basecoats with an airbrush and quickly brushed any details as I didn't have time for masking etc. This was followed up by decals and a coat of varnish. They could do with a wash, but I just didn't have time for that. Should have started a tiny bit earlier I guess. From an arms length away they are OK, but these close ups are quite brutal. At least now I can quite safely say that my low point has been reached in the challenge quality wise so that's out of the way :)