Mike N

If you're referring to the plane in your avatar, the same photo is in the Warpaint book (#92 in the series). The caption states that it's HU-16B 51-035. Mike

Cash is recommended, from my experience. Card payments really struggle at this venue!

An excellent collection to show for the year. Quantity and quality, especially given the basic nature of some of the base kits. Well done, Steve! Mike

Well done, Julian! She's a beauty and something that bit different. Thanks also for the summary of things to watch for, it will be very helpful when I come to do mine. It was on the basis of your build that I pulled the trigger and ordered the kit Mike

Really coming to life now! That cheat line does sound hard work, though you've done a great job with it. If it wasn't for the fact the windows are part of that decal, I'd be tempted to paint it.

What an incredible build, Matt. All that PE would have sent me blind and loopy long ago but you've achieved a stunning result with it all. Truly magnificent! Mike

What a fantastic build, James! To my shame, this is the first time I've read through your thread (not my usual scale or subject matter, m'lud), but on seeing the finished article in the gallery I had to take a look! The cockpit and trolley are absolutely brilliant, a gold standard in weathering. Those seat belts are also incredible, so well worth the addition and effort. Well done!! Mike

That's an interesting idea, and certainly worth a try with nothing to lose... Well OK, worst case is it doesn't shift the big piece but inadvertently drags other debris into view! Still, I'll give it a try and report back Mike

Looking really good so far, Julian! On the back of this thread, I've ordered myself one Looking forward to seeing your build progress. Mike

Congratulations on finishing what sounds a challenging kit - one I have in my stash. I've made a mental note to refer back to your build for guidance. Well done! Mike

Thank you both The poor photography has its rewards in this case, hiding some of the blemishes, I'm not sure 'fun' is the word I'd use in this case, 'torture' perhaps is better Just looking at my stash spreadsheet, I have another five Mach 2 kits. I might reevaluate their retention after this, but then they are all 'the only game in town', which is how they hooked me in the first place... Mike

Here's my effort, the Mach 2 Convair Sea Dart. A pretty terrible kit, it tested my abilities and patience many times, and I'm glad it's all over. Here's the build thread if you were still thinking of getting one.

Perhaps against the odds, and with thanks to the generous extension of the GB deadline, I have finally finished the Sea Dart! Since the last episode, I've got the exhausts looking marginally better than in the base kit. I came to realise after looking at lots of photos of this area that the kit got it really quite wrong. Some of it I might have been able to improve earlier in the build - if I'd had the enthusiasm - but some is beyond my capabilities. The furthest I went was to sand the duct area into more of a round shape at the back: The metal tube exhausts are in and some filler applied to hide the gaps, but in reality there should be a sharp edge where they meet the outside contours. If I'd realised at the start, I would possibly have spent time filing out the inside, but not at this stage. The other thing about this work that has come back to bite me is that some plastic shavings and dust got into the cockpit, which I discovered to my 'delight' when I took the masking tape off. No amount of banging and shaking has managed to dislodge them. Oh well, no way I'm taking the canopy off now. For the final clear coat, I used Galleria Satin Varnish for the first time. At first I was applying it way too heavily, but I found the trick was to spray it so lightly that I couldn't even see it coming out, just the effect on the surface. It's perhaps a little too matt for my liking but I didn't bother trying to fix that. I'd had enough. Here's the end result: I won't be sad to see the back of that box... More photos will go in the gallery. In conclusion, definitely not a great kit nor my finest work. It'll be positioned somewhere near the back of the display cabinet, and if a new kit comes along, it'll be straight out and in the bin. Looking for a positive, if nothing else it has given me some experience in fixing surface imperfections... A big thank you to @81-er and @jackroadkill for hosting, and everyone for their comments and support! Mike

Great work so far, Julian! I've been thinking of getting this kit, so am keenly following your experiences with it. Mike

What a cracking result, Steve! It's turned out very well, much better than the bits in the box suggested it would, so well done! Mike