Bell209

Those pictures are of A52-600, which was at RAAF Richmond when I was first posted there in 1996 (the outside shot is taken at Richmond). It's now at RAAF Point Cook being restored by the RAAF Museum (the indoor shot with the Mustang tail in the background). Be great to see this as a diorama!

More progress. Still have to tidy up the landing gear with some aluminium areas and resolve what I'm going to do with the representation of the fuel tanks yet. I'm not sure of colour or texture at this stage but I need to make a decision soon!These are the much-maligned engines required for the B.III (Special): I reckon I can use these new ones... ...if I put these covers I made from 4 mm aluminium tube over the exhausts: I also made the spotlights and placed them where my reference photos show them: Thanks for looking!

Lovely job! I hope my Belcher's Bits one comes out half as well.

Nope. Can see the previews but clicking on the picture brings up the usual ransomware message.

I'm sure it's great but I can't see them in Australia, either. Mind you, I can't see most of the posts with photobucket, either.

Nice to see an earlier mark - great job!

Absolutely amazing work going on here!

Thanks for scaring me, Johnny! I rechecked and it does fit (the instructions call out the gear after the wings are joined). I'm not fitting the inboard nacelles until after the gear is in, though. There will be a bit of trimming of the holes required as the Eduard etch makes the legs a bit wider. I'm also not keen on the Eduard representation of the fuel cells as they look unlike anything I've seen on any Lancaster wells still existing. Anyone care to give advice on that?

Very clever! I may steal that idea at some point (particularly if it works!).

Coming along very nicely indeed! That's a beautiful finish.

I don't like the D version of the F-86 (I really like the CAC version, though) but it's hard not to like your model! Lovely work.

Lovely job - nice to see it in European RAF colours, too.

After much filling, sanding, gluing, sanding, cutting, gluing, filling, sanding, etc, etc, etc... Decided to fit the flap wells while waiting for the fuselage to dry. More work on wings and engines this week alongside the tidying up and rescribing of the fuselage.

Very generous of you but I think copious amounts of filler and sanding will see it right. I'm determined to get it back to where it was by next weekend. The only obstacle is drying times (and work)!

Disaster today. Knocked my wireless speaker off the shelf above the Lancaster and this happened: Many pieces went out in sympathy, the nav's desk came loose and I couldn't refit it, so I had to split the fuselage again. The radios fell off the desk, too but I've refitted them here. I did manage to find almost all of the bits. Took the opportunity to snap a picture of the repair so far: I found the last missing window piece while I was regluing the desk into place, so that's a bonus! Had to drive across Adelaide to the LHS to find a better glue than the one I've been using, too. The old Tamiya plastic just doesn't respond well to the Humbrol needle-point glue. The two Tamiya adhesives seem to be doing the job on the repairs so far - they actually melt the plastic prior to joining. Feeling pretty depressed about it but once the glue's dried, I'll rejoin the fuselage halves and press on. The worst part is all the filling and sanding I'm up for - it's my least favourite part of our hobby.