Mike

Ok... majority of decals done, with the exception of the tail flashes... shut up Mike, you're repeating yourself I had a bit of a disaster with the placement of one of the wing roundels, and got it a shade out of position, too close to the flaps. Unfortunaetly, it'd grabbed the paint too tightly to move it I've unmasked the wheel bays, and while they're not my best work, they'll do, so I've glued in the MLG legs (no retraction struts yet), to save using the sponges to keep her off the ground. The serials look quite effective Nose wheel & main wheels will be next, I think

Mish - just sand a little off the top & bottom of the intake parts, then line them up at the bottom... that should lose enough thickness without risking sanding through one side or the other

I've got all the decals on except the fin flashes, which go through some rather chubby vortex generators, so I'm waiting for the other decals to set up before I do them. The Freightdog decals were lovely to use, being very thin & flexible. I had a couple of self-induced near misses due to my clumsiness, but once I'd put a few down, I got used to handling them. Building up the serials was made easier by the fact that the underwing ones follow the flap hinge line, but for the fuselage serial I laid a piece of masking tape down to use as my baseline, being very careful not to use any setting solution until the tape had been removed (could have pulled up the paint, I guess?). I'm in the house at the moment, but will post up a pic or two once I'm back in the workshop in a minute. Been having tea & biscuits with Caz before she goes out shopping

Excellent!

Tha's'orrible! Gaps? Chasms!

Thanks guys... decalling is starting in a few minutes

Don't forget that at the top rear of the intake join to the fuselage, there's actually supposed to be a step, with the smallest of gaps.... have a close look at some reference pics & you'll spot it

Ok... the card's a bit screwed, so I re-took the photos on a Sandisk card: Wheels - 4 resin copies of the original: The airframe with some panel shading done:

You just wait!

More excuses... I took a couple of photos last night & brought the memory card in (4gb Bytestor 100x). This morning I can't get my card reader to read it - keeps telling me it's not formatted. The rest of my 4gb cards all work fine though. Now yesterday said card worked just fine on the reader in the workshop, so I'll try it in there in a bit. Even if it works, I think I'll clear it & format it in the camera to be on the safe side.

I'm so glad you put that second layer of putty on Mish.... One session just wasn't gonna cut it, was it? Once you've got it close to how you want it (no, not a miraculous transformation into an Italeri kit!), you could try smearing CA over the filler, which will make it stronger, less porous, and easier to feather at the edges. Do sand it immediately though, as it gets tougher & tougher as it cures. In fact, sometimes I sand while it's still damp(ish), as the dust created sticks to the wet glue & helps fill in the little pits that might still be there.

That seat looks reet gradely! Yer pilot doesn't look bad either - how did you do his visor so lully & shiny & smooth?

Gimmee a chance! The wash isn't dry yet

I've been perusing some photos actually Melchie old chap, and had spotted that dribbly bottom effect, and also about 2/3 of the way down the engine nacelles, there's a vent of some sort on each engine, which seems to dirty up the rear 1/3 of the nacelles. Other than that, they seem quite clean. I've masked & overpainted a few panels & some of the flaps with white to give them that "just replaced" effect, but I thought it was a little OTT, so oversprayed the wings again to mute it down. I'm reasonably happy with the paint finish now, so will probably decal it later tonight, floating them on Klear, then Klear the whole airframe, wash the panels, and apply some small amounts of dirt I've managed to pull four decent wheels from my mould, and am just in the process of painting them up. Washed with black wash, they look quite smart

A very nice build...

Your pointy stick is much enhanced by the correct attitude & location of your fins

I think Rich has an unfair advantage though... because he's small already, these fiddly things seem larger to him, so therefore easier to paint. I think we should make him model exclusively in 1:144 from now on

One of the things I like about missing threads until they're well underway, is that you get to see the progress in fast forward. Lovely job Antoine... formidable!

Very nice Karl... come on, get 'er dirty!

Good job I checked. The date for the "busier" bay is 1985, the new one was dated 2005 for the panoramic camera, which I'd imagine stays behind its retractable doors most of the time. Seems silly to upgrade a camera layout a year before you retire the airframes, but What do I know?

I wondered that at the time, but I was leafing through my PR.9 book the other day, and noticed that the fit with the long slot shaped window at the front of the bay was installed after 1985 (that's an IIRC on the date - I can check if you like). Does that help?

Lovely job Rich, and you beat Reevesy into a cocked hat!

Sten! What're you waiting for then? Your hangover to clear? Start a build thread this instant!

The Eduard templates are ok, and have their uses, but I'm hooked on the Lion Roar ones that I got a couple of years ago from an armour vendor at Telford. I can't remember his name, sadly, but I saw them again this year - I think Richc was buying some, and every time I walked past there were fewer & fewer, until they were all gone well before the show ended. If you can, save up your pennies for a full set of the Lion Roar templates, and then back them up with the Eduard ones, and eventually some Airwaves radius templates, which is where my toolbox stands at the moment

Any more progress?