AREA 88: "Steinberger '76" (Kfir+A-4E+MiG-21)

Matthew A
Back to something familiar

Greg Baker
Yeah, after wrestling with the 1/72 Connie for a bit, it feels nice to be home. 🙂

Spanjaard
back to 144 🙂
i did the revell one as first build after my first modelling "pause"

Greg Baker
Is your current pause over yet? There's something comforting about 1/144 scale.

Juergen Klinglhuber
Who or what is meant with "Steinberger" - the pilot?

Greg Baker
In a flashback scene, the West German pilot Hoover (Kfir) saves the Englishman Benditz (A-4E) from certain death after a MiG-21 gets him in his sights. In gratitude, Benditz offers Hoover a bottle of his favourite German wine, a '76 Steinberger.

It's a neat little scene in the Area 88 manga. Hoover later dies, so Benditz (after being discharged) orders a bottle in Paris and drinks in his memory. At first, the French hotelier is a bit offended that someone would order German wine in France... but she does have a bottle stashed away regardless.

The whole chapter is a touching sidebar story actually. We've never seen Benditz up to that point (he's basically created for the story), but this is an unknown story involving the secondary, but well-known, Hoover. The story follows Benditz's successful discharge from Area 88 after serving his full 3 year mercenary contract and his trip home. Everyone calls him lucky because he's never even been hit, his A-4E is in pristine condition (unlike everyone else's). Then, minutes after finally getting off the plane in Heathrow airport in London, he's stabbed in the chest during a random mugging over a couple of pounds and dies on the floor in a puddle of blood. Meanwhile, back at Area 88, everyone is guessing what "lucky Benditz" must be up to, back in the "real world."

Juergen Klinglhuber
Thx for sharing.... 👍

Spanjaard
Yes Greg, started building again recently, just a bit...
Have not posted anything yet 🙂
But I am back in my 1/144 project(s), that it was supposed to be finished almost 3 years ago....

Nils Steyaert
im looking forward to se this one finished, 1/144 Kfir's are hard to find these days.

Matthew A
More MiGs 😎

Greg Baker
Yeah. But this time th MiG gets blown up. 😉

Greg Baker
Been away from the bench for a while… started a new job, which has left me a bit out of the rhythm, so I'm trying to get my inspiration back. I figured the best way to do that was just to pick up one of my many half started projects and get to work.

Juergen Klinglhuber
All the best for your new job. - I am sure that your Steinberger project will turn out good 👍

Spanjaard
congrats and good luck with the new job. looking forward seeing this one finished. i used the revel 1/144 kfir to return to the hobby after my first break 🙂

Greg Baker
Pulling this one back off the shelf…

Greg Baker
Ok… might've got ahead of myself on some of the painting, so I'm clawing it back a bit. I'm going to use the same "paint over the decal to blend it" method I did (much more painfully) on my 1/144 F1 project. It mainly just takes a bit more planning up front on placement and colour selection.

Greg Baker
Decals on… now comes the hard part. 🙂

Mike Volkov
👀

Greg Baker
Stage one complete - carefully mask decals and paint over them... only time will tell if the tape will pull the decals off. I'm hopeful that so long as the tape doesn't go over the edge of the decal, some careful removal will do the trick.