Tales from the Basement Lab by AndrewR

[AndrewR]

Yours also has a single piece windscreen and a quarter window, right? Newer model, maybe?

Cheers,
Asoka

Looks like they forgot the port side passenger door! I must admit that I haven't seen a Sycamore photo like that.

[Asoka]

Looks like they forgot the port side passenger door! I must admit that I haven't seen a Sycamore photo like that.

I think they have drawn a 'solid' door version... if such a thing was in existence!

Cheers,
Asoka

[Stuart]

The Syacamore is really great! ...what a cute helicopter!
...and it looks so much like the one in the Ladybird book!

(...love these illustrations... )
Thanks for recreating one of my childhood memories!

Cheers,
Asoka

Great Picture Asoka! What book is that from?

[AndrewR]

For some reason I have developed an aversion to putting the undercarriage doors on the Firestreak Hunter.

So, to train for this epic feat,I put the undercarriage on the Eurofighter Typhoon!



The kit canopy doesn't fit brilliantly, but I have a vacform replacement.



The white underwing pylons need another coat of paint. A few missiles have been painted, but need some decals on.



The canards are also in the paint shop.

[Stuart]

Looking good that!

[AndrewR]

Looking good that!

Thanks. The canopy is masked up, and the canards are ready for fitting.

Meanwhile, the outer fuel tanks are on the Firestreak Hunter.



FRADU Hunters were often photographed with odd coloured tanks. An arrangement with a rather shabby looking dayglo orange tank on one side, and an EDSG/white tank on the other side is commonly seen.



No fins on the tanks yet. They need painting to match.

[Dazzled]

Great work on the Hunter and Typhoon Andrew and, while I'm not usually a fan of flying egg whisks, the Sycamore is a real peach

[PGAS]

The Typhoon and Hunter are coming along nicely.

The Sycamore is looking a real treat! I really like yellow SAR schemes. Nice work folding the rotor blades. How big is the model?

[AndrewR]

Undercarriage doors on. As expected, not an easy fit.



Fortunately most of my (un)handiwork is invisible



I also added the fins to the grey and white fuel tank. The ones for the orange tank are not orange enough yet!



Also fading into invisibility is the tailhook. The white paint on the Firestreak missiles is done, there are a few black bits and stripes to do.

[AndrewR]

The Typhoon and Hunter are coming along nicely.

The Sycamore is looking a real treat! I really like yellow SAR schemes. Nice work folding the rotor blades. How big is the model?

It's pretty big, as it's a box scale of around 1/65ish.

You can see it's considerably longer than the 1/72 Seafire:

[PGAS]

Strange scale! Really nice looking. Thank you for the size reference photo. Judging from the Seafire kit, that is close to the size of a 1/72 H-46!

[AndrewR]

Strange scale! Really nice looking. Thank you for the size reference photo. Judging from the Seafire kit, that is close to the size of a 1/72 H-46!

That's a pretty good estimate, I'd say.

[Asoka]

Hi Andrew,
Both the Hunter and the Typhoon are looking really smart! Any idea why the hunter had different coloured tanks?
...and is the opening on the Typhoon's spine for a lift engine? ...a VTOL version?
The Sycamore has been pretty big in real life too, despite looking so dainty... I would never have guessed it was 61 feet long! (indeed, longer than an Apache!)

Great Picture Asoka! What book is that from?

Stuart,
The picture of the Sycamore is from a Ladybird book...

I really love the illustrations in these old books....

Cheers,
Asoka

[ShaunW]

The Hunter looks great Andrew and it's good to see the Eurofighter back on the bench

[AndrewR]

I finally stretched a bit of sprue for a pitot tube for the Frogspawn Hunter, so I can declare it finished.