Ex-FAAWAFU

The A on the tail of 700's Sea Harriers (FRS1s, so a very different aircraft to the one you are modelling so beautifully, Vitaly) was a Fleet Air Arm joke - a reference to the Omega mark on 892 NAS Phantoms a few years before. The 892 Omega had no connection to the squadron crest, but was to denote that they were (as they thought at the time) the Navy's last ever fixed-wing carrier squadron. 700 NAS was the Intensive Flying Trials Unit (700 Squadron has always had that role since the late-1950s, usually with a letter suffix to denite the type; 700P Phantom, 700L Lynx, 700S Sea King, etc). For the Sea Harrier, Instead of 700H continuing the suffix theme, they picked 700A, to show that the Navy was back in the fixed-wing business. [Edit: incidentally, I strongly suspect that the choice of 809 NAS to be the 2nd F35B squadron is to make the same point. From time to time (at least twice in my lifetime, for instance) the RAF have been known to claim that they have "finally killed off Naval fixed wing". The choice of a Phoenix rising from the flames (which is 809's badge) is, I suspect, making the same "not so fast..." point as 700A's Alpha.] Stunning model, anyway!

What an elegant machine (& bonkers schemes); what's not to like? Lovely start on the modelling front, too.

Certainly not; I am always masked in public

Gorgeous! (And SO tiny...)

Since I can't get to my bench, but can access my photographs remotely, a sneak preview of the future. I have slightly revised the way I plan to display this beast - or, more accurately, I've added to the plan. She'll still have full blanks, RBF tags, TR gust lock, Forth Road Bridge gear and 8 nylon lashings, as already mentioned - but I also plan to add one of these: Not this particular one, as it happens; this is a 1/48 resin RN Flight Deck tractor made by AirFrame (who are new to me). It's a really lovely piece of casting, but it represents a more modern tractor than the 1987 version - so I'm keeping this one back for a future Merlin or Shar FA2 build. The AirFrame box calls it a "Vickers 4x4 Aircraft Carrier Deck Tractor Mk II"; I guess we had the Mk I. The only difference that I can see is the tank (firefighting?) above the front left wheel; since I am rather reluctant to start hacking about such a nice resin casting unless I have to, I have ordered one of these instead: The Skunkworks version is also a Mk II, but it's styrene rather than resin, so should be easier to modify. It also contains 2 tractors and at least one tow bar (and, it seems, a Shar ladder), which presents some possibilities. As you can see from this pic of a couple of real ones (plus a couple of 801 FRS1s, with the nearer one receiving a top-up of demin water from the tank on the tractor) on Ark's deck in 1988... ...the tractors had been painted green by this stage - but it was only recent; in 1987 when I first embarked in Ark they were still yellow. The yellow was already starting to show through, which gives me a chance to have some fun with weathering. [Incidentally, I rather like this photo; for a start it shows just how manky RBF tags got in real life - modellers always seem to portray them as gleaming bright red for some reason, but look at that filthy thing hanging off the AIM9 rail!] No figures, though; my painting skills are not up to that. A Vixen pilot ¾ hidden is one thing, but this would be way too exposed! Anyway, there you have it. Crisp

Chaps, there is likely to be a short hiatus with this build; I have a minor family crisis to deal with, which means I doubt I'll get to the bench for about a week. Nothing to worry about, but has to be dealt with. Shouldn't be more than a week - maybe much less. No parties or redecorating the thread, though; I will still be here on BM, just not actually doing much modelling! Crisp

Not content with building lovely home-baked teeny-weeny seats, now Bill appears to be adding a Thunderbird 4 to the collection. Good luck with covering that blue with the yellow... [Or is it just me who sees T4 on the left?]

Top pulling

That looks outstanding. I particularly like the collector ring, which actually looks like a real heat-stained steel thing, rather than the bronze thingummy that so many builds seem to feature. Lovely job.

If it's a choice between Jecobin & Airfix, I'd believe Jecobin every time. You might want to double check, though; I have just measured the lifts on my Jacobin Ark Royal and they work out at c. 16.7m x 10m - which is pretty close to Airfix numbers.

No disagreement re Fallon & Kuznetsov! Submariners always say that about any surface ship... just as every Merlin crew that flies from her deck will say exactly the same thing about any submarine. Look, every military asset can be killed, sunk, shot down, whatever - though that is not the same as saying it's easy to do. If we end up in a full-on shooting war on our own vs Russia, we'll lose. That has been the case for at least 50 years. But we won't. However, there is an almost infinite range of states between full peace and a shooting war, and there is nothing as good at power projection, sending messages, flexibility, etc as a carrier, and they can be used for all sorts of other things, too (disaster relief, diplomacy, inserting or extracting troops & helicopters, to name but a few. And, of course, if it were to come to a shooting war, it's not like a worked-up QE would exactly be toothless or helpless, either. People often say we'd have won the Falklands easily with Ark Royal. Though that is true, it completely misses the point; the Argentines would not have dared invade in the first place if we'd still had her.

Other riveting methods are available. Just saying.

Yes, please! [But Oh. Em. Gee.; the colour of that Stranraer plastic...]

If you can't sort out an un-bulged bomb bay door, Heritage do a nice 1/48 resin recce pack which would solve your problem. That's how I plan to sort out my S1 when I get round to it. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/206283-heritage-aviation-models-buccaneer-recce-pod

Why? A carrier without an air group is about as useless as... let me see... an airfield without any aircraft, perhaps? Or a gun without any bullets. True, but meaningless. On the other hand a carrier with an air group is infinitely more flexible, hard to target, adaptable, multi-purpose (and many other attributes that make carriers worth having) than any airfield can ever be - and the RAF's aircraft are pretty much ALL stuffed without airfields. Which is what makes the argument being regularly advanced in the papers at present (attributed to "senior ex-RAF officers") so fatuous. I assume that's what you're referring to. You know the one: "Navy's new carrier could be sent to the bottom in ten minutes" was a headline this very morning, and there have been many like it of late. And they are fatuous; carriers could be sunk "easily"... yet runways (when I last looked, immobile and very large) are somehow NOT easy to hit? Come off it! If it's as simple as all that to sink a carrier, then why do the Russians, Chinese, USA, French and Indians persist in building them?

Now that is starting to look really close - close enough to work with a bit of modelling, I'd say (even if it turns out you have cut away too much). Great work.

I have always assumed - and the photos seem to back this up - that the lifts are the same size as the lifts on a CVS (Invincible class); i.e. standard size to take a folded Sea King and/or Merlin. A folded Sea King is 47' 3" long (14.4m), which is 9" longer than a Sea Harrier. However, the lifts on the CVS were not changed when they were refitted for Merlin, and a Merlin folds down to 15.75m; so I'd say the lifts are probably, say, between 16 & 16.5m long. You could work out width in proportion (though the SHAR had a 25' 3" / 7.6M wingspan, which might help. Hope that helps! Incidentally, though she has largely been used as a "troop/casualty ship", Argus was procured as an aviation support & training ship (replacing RFA Engadine); that's why she's named after a carrier.

Is that really true? I may be wrong, but i am under the impression that the reason she is called QE (and why CVA-01 would have been called the same had she been built) is because it is a tradition to name the first major capital ship of a monarch's rein after that monarch. (OK, I say tradition - it's not THAT ancient!). KGV did it, and the second (WW2) KGV was so-called because his son (KGVI) asked for the change to be made. On that basis, this QE is named after the present monarch. Of course, I may have been fed complete duff gen on this, but that is what I believe to be the case... She is, however, definitely HMS. I stood by Boxer from her time in the yard at Yarrows (pre move on board), through Contractor's Sea Trials, Acceptance Trials, Safety OST, Commissioning, First-of-Class Trials and finally initial OST. Of course the colour of her ensign changed during that period for the same reasons as any warship's does, but she was definitely HMS Boxer throughout that time. P.S. WAFU stuff don't count, eh? The RN's largest ever warship is going to be some white elephant without any air group!

Yours second hand for only £98 on Amazon.co.uk... (time to look in Abe Books, methinks!) Fantastic idea; I'm in!

I've only seen 202, but since I am invariably looking for RN stuff I'd only notice in passing, so there might be things I have missed.

He will, but only if he lives to be about 150... There IS a mega-scratch-build in my modelling future plans dreams, but it's definitely not a 1/32 Sea King! In fact it's not an aircraft at all. I would like to build a model of every ship in which I served. I have one of Peter Hall's exquisite 1/350 Leanders (to be built as Dido, the Ikara Leander I joined as a Mid in 1979); I also have one of his County Class DLGs (to be Norfolk, which I joined in 1981 straight out of university). You have already seen my Ark Royal (1987-1989), which will be resumed as soon as I finish this Sea King. That leaves Boxer (1983-1984), Broadsword (1989-91) and Blackwater (CO 1991-1994)... Oh, and the ship in which I went to war, which is the mega-scratch-build. HMS Fearless, 1982, in 1/350. Definitely not until I have retired, so don't hold your breath. [I might build Blackwater as a trial run to learn lessons about building ships from nothing but plans, because Fearless' hull shape was pretty complex, what with the dock and all] When you add in the Lynxes wot I have flown (XZ722 & ZD260 in particular), plus an 819 NAS SAR Sea King... and take account of the glacial speed with which my builds tend to proceed... and the other things in my stash (see signature block for some of them)... Sorry, Bill; there's just not going to be enough time for a Gentleman's Scale Queen of the Skies! [Of course, if someone were to be crazy enough to release a kit, I would undoubtedly not be able to resist. Breath not held.] Actually, all joking aside, I am seriously considering undertaking a major stash reduction exercise.

With my user name, would you expect anything else? Us Fly Navy types have to keep our end up, you know.

You're right, Keith, it is a balancing act (but isn't all weathering?). My plan all along was to tone the rivets down. They need to be less obviously silver; you see the real ones clearly (though only sometimes) because they catch the light, not because they're a different colour. In some places - notably the black anti-glare panel on the nose and where the gearbox access doors get sooty immediately behind the exhaust - they'll pretty much disappear unless you really look for them, but in others they will be pretty clear. That's why I'm using oils to do the weathering & fading. It takes much longer, but in this case that is a good thing, because the drying time means you have to pause quite often. Misting fine, thin coats with an airbrush can be really effective if you're a better airbrusher than me - but in my hands it's much more likely that I'll squeeze the trigger for half a second too long and overdo it. I also find it much easier to get variations with oils than with a sprayed coat.

Or Pusser's Red Lead...

It feels as though almost everything I have posted recently has been preceded with the caveat "this is quite hard to photograph"... Well, this is quite hard to photograph. I have started the process of weathering / toning down / varying the paint job. I generally use the oil dot technique - much beloved of our AFV cousins - for this. The good news is that you can revisit things as often as you like, overlaying oil coat on oil coat to obtain different effects, some of them pretty subtle. The bad news is that all this takes a long time, because oils take so long to dry. This first go is an experiment; I wanted to see whether I could tone down the rivets enough just using oils, or whether I was going to need to airbrush another misted coat of Mr Color before using the oils to add variations and patina. Anyway, for what it's worth, here is part one. It's best photographed from a reasonable distance away - this was shot with my iPhone from approximately 3 feet away. The section I have worked on runs from the exhaust down and back at a roughly 45 degree angle towards the tail wheel, and stops roughly below the Sea Searcher radome. You can pick it out in the photo mostly because there is a noticeable difference in reflectivity - but I hope you can also see that the rivets are less In Yer Face. You can also see the effect quite well here: Port side walkway has had a bit of oil paint, and starboard hasn't. Again, I think / hope you can see that the rivets are less obviously SILVER, especially at the end nearest the radar. It is important not to do too much at one time with this technique - cos if you do, the danger is 1. that all the oils blend into a single greyish mush, thus ensuring there are no any subtle variations in colour (which is half the point of this) and 2. that you overdo it. It's easy to add more - and there is no limit to how many times you can do this. But overdo it early and it's pretty hard to get rid. For those who are interested, the oils used are as follows: Titanium White Ivory Black Burnt Umber (all three Daler Rowney "Georgian" tubes available pretty much anywhere, including WHSmith, which is where these came from) Payne's Grey Prussian Blue (both Winsor & Newton, available from any art shop) Neutral Grey Intense Blue Magenta (all 502 Abteilung oils which are specially designed for modelling - these obtained from the interwebs). There is a lot more of this to come, but you have to make a start somewhere. More soon Crisp