AdrianMF

Righty ho. Nearly finished, need to varnish the fuselage: It looks like a Mosquito! And that's good enough for me tonight. I will finish varnishing and take some properer pictures for the gallery tomorrow.

Ever closer to finishing: I ended up with a fuselage roundel and fin flash from the Airfix Wildcat and 'B' type roundels from Xtradecal. The Matchbox codes and serials were disappointing but not unexpected; the glue had turned to gunk, so I had to wash them down before applying them over Decalfix; and they were mis-registered, so I had to touch up both codes and serials to hide the white edges. It looks terrible in real life but (unusually) I can't capture the full horror in a phone camera because it has an algorithm to smooth out reds. All that freehand canopy frame painting was a good preparation! The Matchbox kit doesn't have the keep off signs for the radiators, so I did some quick and dirty masking on some decal sheet. Once those are dry, it will be time for varnish and gallery!

I suspected other people might have had the same thought, so I took one for the team and went for the "YTA" tag. Seriously, I hope that you are on your way to working things out and that you end up a stronger couple at the end of it. Hopefully your return to modelling is a good sign. Regards, Adrian

(Sorry)

I'm not sure now is the best time to be taking on two extra partners... Adrian

Wow! You're making a last-minute sprint look effortless. Nice scheme. Regards, Adrian

Gosh thanks gents. We are in the bunfight! A fine sentiment! It's all relative and subjective. If your stash is all Tamiya and one of the boxes has a little mark where the price sticker didn't peel off nicely, then that can be the one! Although I suspect your stash is a bit more interesting than that... Wup! Now you've done it Tony. Guess what's going to fall out the next time you open the cupboard door. Regards, Adrian

We can fix that. Today is Friday. Work laptop now closed. Out with the masking tape and paint: Pretty happy with the masking, only a bit of touch up required. I was going to mask up for the cockpit framing, but I got the interior colour done by freehanding with an optivisor and a fine brush. I find it quite relaxing! So: a bit of touching up, paint external colour canopy frames, re-do one of the added undercarriage X braces that I broke some point, fit wheels, paint tailwheel, decide what to do about the aerial, add decals and varnish. And weather the exhausts... Should be a shoo-in. Gosh, I've said that before! (and how about some do not walk markings on the radiators while we're about it??)

I'm gonna have a look through my figures spares box to see if I've got any! The significance completely passed me by when I was a teen... The horse pose is looking good - it's less gallopy than I thought it was going to be. If you wanted to add more texture to the mane and tail (and also any sheepskin or bearskin) you can always try using a hot pin to texture the parts. Historex manes and tails are arguably crisp and detailed enough not to need the treatment, but it really helps Airfix parts. Regards, Adrian

25 years for me. Rather shockingly, if I ignore duplicate kits it goes down to 21 years! Sorry Peter, /drift Regards, Adrian

That's a lot of etch... Looking forward to this build! Regards, Adrian

FWIW Wikipedia has the full size span of R.IV - R.VII at 42.2m (138ft 5in) which gives a span of 586mm in 1/72 and 293mm in 1/144. The R.VIII was even larger! So I think that's a couple more inches added to your 1/144 span, now just short of a foot... Regards, Adrian

Thanks Peter, so the second one was a car door! I suspected it was but the pic in scalemates looked like a bubble when I looked in to check (I've only built the Tempest). My scan is a full spinal scan which is the third (and last??) attempt to find what's causing my lower body to malfunction. It's been going on for three years now and is progressively eroding my mobility. It's not exactly fun getting old but it beats the alternative! Regards, Adrian

Looks good Pete. Glad the op went well too. There seems to be a clustering effect; I've got a general anaesthetic for a scan on Monday. (edit) There are two FROG Typhoons as well IIRC; a very basic 1959 mould and a 1975 new tool, both bubble canopies. Regards, Adrian

Words you don't see very often on modern forums #67: "Scratchbuild from Wood"