Tomoshenko

Looking superb Bill.

Thanks Bob. I've already painted the blinkin' nosewheel now, so a bit late. Useful to see the anhedral wings though. The box art and instructions don't do them justice,

Close one Bill. Note to self, Christmas drinking and modelling don't mix too well.

Well it has been quite a while since I’ve posted on here. If memory serves we were still running around wearing masks and trying to avoid Chinese viruses. I’d got bogged down building my Avro Rota which I’ve decided to “pause” (well I hadn’t touched it for over a year), and experienced a serious mojo loss. I also moved into a new home (a word of advice folks – never try moving home in the middle of a pandemic induced lockdown) and had a lot of refurbs to do. Anyroad having broken the back of those and missed the Telford IPMS I’ve suddenly had an urge to back into it again. I’ve got a number of ideas for some projects which I’ll be discussing with Bill (Perdu) at the Brum IPMS, but in the meantime I need a reasonable quickish* straightforward build to get back into things and kick start the mojo proper. Enter the AZmodel Saunders Roe SR-53 I’ve always liked RAF cold war prototypes and this fits the bill. A promising aircraft but fell prey to advancing surface to air missile technology and the 1957 Defence White Paper. There’s only about thirty odd parts and the paint scheme is pretty well .. oh... basic all white. It will be a broadly OOB build with the odd little detail here and there, but really modest stuff. This is what you get, quite nice box art. Basic instructions and the transfers look good. I’ve seen some decent reviews of A kits online, but this is a bit of a curates egg. The panel lines are finely recessed a bit like Fujimi standard, but some of the mouldings and where parts are joined to the sprues are pretty moody in parts (*So to correct my comment above, this won’t be as quick as I’d like it). For example here is the instrument panel: Whereby one of the instruments is almost obliterated. Here is the main undercarriage: The torque links are a fused mass. These have been cleaned up and tape added to the struts to provide a little more definition. The wheels are okay but the front undercarriage required a little more clean up, drilled out some lightening holes in the hub and again added a little tape around the strut to improve definition – like the main undercarriage they were just too blobby to leave. Next up was the pit and IP, plus I made up some rudimentary harnesses out of beer can foil and a couple of bang pull rings. So that’s it so far which has got me back into things, but I’ll be able to get some paint on soon and start on the fuselage. See ya all soon.

Coming along nicely there Bill. Engine bits are really nice.

Nice build and a fine finish. difficult to tell it was brush painted. I have this re-released vintage classic in my stash too. How was the build and fit?

I've been gone a while and what do I find when I'm back? A super Fritag 1/48 build of a superb subject with bonkers 3d detailing. Fantastic Steve. Love the detailing. Perhaps you should try and get one of the guns to actually fire 😉

That is absolutely bonkers brilliant Steve.

Tis coming along nicely Bill. Yes I have been gone awhile but venturing back now. Saw this at the Moseley Exchange and thought of you. Note they ran to the Fighting Cocks "very frequently throughout the day". Obviously much demand for a service to said watering hole 😉

Just caught up Bill. Proper bostin' workmanship. Seats look superb, even if they are a tad monotonous to build. I don't think 22nd century cybernetic organisms would be particularly interested in assimilating 19th century Brummie bus seats (19th century Brummies perhaps) - fortunately we never found out. Reference the interior colours, I know the Airfix colour for the B Type omnibus is cream for some of the interior (Humbrol 103) which is circa 1910. Yep I know it is for the London transport livery but I don't think it is too much of a leap of faith to assume that cream colour shades could have been adopted by many transport companies up and down the country for parts of the interior (ceilings) and exteriors? They wouldn't have had the vast range of colours the PTEs had obviously. I think Brum Cream is certainly plausible. Perhaps a call to Farrow & Ball and recommend it as an addition to their heritage range.

Lovely seat Bill. I think you deserve a sit down after all that hard work. PS yes the paint does look the correct hue. As I remarked earlier it was always the blackish side of midnight blue, almost black.

Bostin stuff Bill.

Agree Bill. I was going to suggest adding a dab of green to the black, but didn't want to complicate things, but complicated it is so add a dab of green.

And a few more, original late 60s onwards this time, so colour is a little washed out. The number 5 to Perry Common (oop your way I believe Bill) is sporting the bland WMPTE logo, incomparable to the original city transport crest in my view. Dinner party fact, the crest is based on the original with the male figure on the dexter side and the female on the sinister side. I believe they swapped sides after we "annexed" [Royal] Sutton Coldfield. https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=7726&category_id=206&page=3 https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=76&product_id=19171 https://www.xangisan.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=629827

To emphasise my point, and aware of the fact that you are from the claret and blue side of the city, I think you'll appreciate this: As you can see the blue is very dark and pretty much how I remember them. Permit me to add a personal anecdote, but sometimes when I met my dad at the bus garage and after he'd parked up the bus, on occasion he'd let me sit in the cab. Absolutely fantastic...