Simon's Space

[SJPONeill]

The wings just kinda fell together last night as well, although the scribed lines don't quite line up along one leading edge...also join the halves of the two wing tip floats - these did not marry up well at all with one half (the outer one) being noticeably smaller than the inner one that fairs onto the wing tip...if it was just one float I would just think that I had oversanded the piece but the flaw is exactly the seam for both sides...

No pics this morning as the camera to laptop to memory stick to PC process (I lost the proprietary camera download cable) is a little too much as I gear up for a couple of days on the road...

[malepo]

as I said - very interesting thing are going on here! I love those triangles

[SJPONeill]

Am having my first real weekend off since February...coupled with working from home a couple of days a week 0600-1400, I have been getting some stuff done - although I've still to coord a sunny day with being free to airbrush...

Have had a re-org of the stash to make everything more accessible and also so I can load all the stash locations into KitBase and actually find stuff when I want it...so some of the bigger stuff has got into the rafters...



...leaving these locations more accessible...



Over the last few nights, I've used Selleys Kwik-Grip flexible glue to joint the tracks for the Trumpeter B-4 203mm cannon so that that will (hopefully stay flexible enough to be painted separately and then bent into place...first just after finishing them and you can see little bits of the yellow-ish glue peeking through...



and then after a coat of primer...



I've also done some more work on my Russian river Monitor Udarnyj...here using a couple of cans to hold the rear hull template in place with PVA - once it's cured, I'll fill this area and sand back to the shape of the template...once that's don't I'll be ready to add the actual hull sheets...the colourful can on the right is the spray primer I currently use...gives a nice smooth matt finish...



I've also been chipping away at the Hobbycraft 1/48 Avro Arrow...the long fuselage seam is a real cow and if I build another one of these I will be adding some internal formers as the problem is the length of the unsupported seam on both sides...forgot to take a photo of this though and it's too damn cold to go back outside...

[SJPONeill]

Oh yes...almost forgot, spent most of yesterday afternoon sorting through the paint stash to see what's still alive...amazingly only a few cans/bottles were toast, even though some of them date back to the late 70s - a general observation would be that those seal with a metal cap like Humbrol cans and Testors and Polly S bottles seem to last way better than those with plastic caps like Tamiya and Gunze...

I know now that I am unlikely to run out of RLM 02 or 66 any time soon but am flummoxed as to why I would have bought four bottles of Tamiya Flat Earth, or indeed, what I am possibly going to use it all on...

[SJPONeill]

Just pottering around today while the grand-monsters are here...


Added the wings and fuselage spine to the CF-105 - the spine is a good idea in concept to cover the join between the two wing halves but the fit of the spine leaves a bit to be desired hence the brute force approach to keeping the parts together while the glue cures...



Came out OK though...



and I sprayed the inside of the largely unseen cockpit black - what a nice change from that great mass of white...



While I had the black spray can out, I also did the intakes interiors on the N9M...

[Jagewa]

Wow, that's a big dart Simon, she looks zoomy.

Cheers
Jim

[SJPONeill]

Yeah, Jim, it's nicely large...thinking of doing it up as an alternative TSR.2 strike/attack as I'm not keen on the all-over white RCAF scheme...Simon

[Jagewa]

Good idea, that is a big expanse of white, it would make look even more like a dart.

There are certainly lots of cool camo schemes to choose, I quite like this hornet one http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Na ... 008013a5af wonder how that would look on the Arrow?

Cheers
Jim

[Softscience]

I think things are turning out better than ok on the 105. Thats a very attractive aircraft, but difficult to model on account of the less than stellar kit options. Keep it up, I'd love to see this one finished.

[SJPONeill]

Thanks, guys, encouragement is everything...

Thinking of using the Martels spare from the Airfix Bucc as a payload but will try to swap one or the other so that I have four of either the ARM or TV version as the articles on the whiffer TSR.2 say that the Buccs rarely if ever mixed them...though these might go under the fuselage with a not-modelled fuel tank in the weapon bay and some period tanks under the wings out board of the wings...

[Softscience]

Also wanted to ask about the 1/8 scale Jaguar in the loft. That looks like it could be a fun project. Will you be doing anything with it soon?

[SJPONeill]

Also wanted to ask about the 1/8 scale Jaguar in the loft. That looks like it could be a fun project. Will you be doing anything with it soon?

It is a real treasure trove but not the way you might think - it's just the Jag box, I never had the model itself (but wouldn't mind) but it came and is still full of some great 50s and 60s built-ups, mainly Renwal, that I am slowly restoring like the Atomic Annie, Teracruzer and Mace missile, Snark, Regulus, FROG Bloodhound...can't remember what else...was all packed in this tissue paper...they were destined for the tip before I intervened...

[hypostomus]

This could be a future quiz question.

Fairey Hendon?

[SJPONeill]

It is...an aircraft long neglected by model manufacturers, although I see that Valom (I think?) is starting a series that includes the Harrow some maybe there is hope yet for multi-engine RAF bombers from between the wars...? In the meantime, however, I'll continue to work the angle grinder over the Contrail kit repairing 'battle' damage...

[SJPONeill]

Playing around with various armament options for a strike Arrow...am quite keen on a big load of 1000lbers in three rows of four under the fuselage but need the bombs (not away of any aftermarket sets other than the [expensive] Flightpath ones) - tried making a mold out of FIMO but that clearly will need more practice.

So I reconsulted my trusty TSR guide and thought something along the lines of the fictional Bluewater might look good. Not prepared to pay for the resin ones so trying my own - only needs to get the look right as the whole airborne Blue Water was a bit of a leap to start with but don't want any clearly US weaponry as the UK has always gone its own way with air ordnance...here you see two SRAMs from the Revell 1/48 B-One joined back to back. I need to fill the slight wasp-waist and might conceal this some more by putting some fins here...



Will have to wait til the weather clears up before doing any shaping and sanding...