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alancmlaird

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    Stirling
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    British civil aircraft. WW1.

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  1. Thanks muchly, chaps. It was touch and go there for a while, and on seeing my own pics close up, there are definitely some improvement to be made post-gallery. I really would like to 'crack' the fine outer line to the dark blue with better resolution printing, and the canopy framing is too thick (I nearly gave up on it as the dashed transparencies wouldn't stick securely to the cockpit combing). I'm now eyeing-up some drawings and pics of the coupe version, and rummaging in my BIG box of bits for the next unrelated set of components to butcher. Are modellers all suckers for punishment?
  2. DH94 Moth Minor G-AFPN. Strathalllan Air Museum 1980s. Still flying. To recap, built from: Frog Miles Magister fuselage, inner wings, propeller, rudder, tailwheel, windscreens and seats. Airfix Handley Page Jetstream outer wings. Airfix Tiger Moth anti-spin strakes and wheels. Plastic card/stretched sprue tailplane and undercarriage. To sum up, a pile of old bits'n'pieces. I'm delighted with the Moth Minor shape derived from an unpromising bunch of bits, less so with my painting (the actual aircraft had a very thin dark blue line running very close to the dark blue main parts, but my printer resolution wouldn't print it, and I certainly couldn't mask and panit it. I'll experiment a bit with thicker lines on decal to see if I can improve on it and re-apply all over. Also, if there are any professional typographers out there who take issue with the registration lettering being a bit 'amateurish', take it up with the original sign-writer - I got it spot-on!
  3. A quick, bad, late, snap to reveal a bunch of serious touch-ups still required. I will post better (maybe) ones on the gallery at the last minute (also maybe!).
  4. ....well, I know I should have checked before now, but the curved transparency (the Magister has one curved and one flat-glass screen) from the shop-soiled kit was completely unusable. I already had one from the spares box, but I needed two, so, Philistine that I am, I robbed the one I needed from this original Frog boxing, excavated from my historic stash mine.... ...a dab of clear PVA to glue both to the now nearly finished model. It looks like, despite my previous non-shows, I might actually get finished in time to put pics in the Gallery before close of play. (Don't worry - I have already planned a Hawk Major conversion from this boxing, which uses two of the flat-glass screens, and just needs new trousers plus modified fin and rudder. Easy-peasy, waste not, want not, re-use recycle etc etc.)
  5. Just a 'masking' progress report ("A boredom shared is a boredom halved" nobody ever said) Midnight blue leading edges everywhere. Tape still on the strake and tailplane, just the other side of the fin/rudder still to do - plus lot of touching up! Windscreens to be added. Decals done and ready to go on. Oh, and I knocked an undercarriage leg off while masking 🙄
  6. The change-over was probably the G-AS-- in UK range as I have seen contemporary pics, some with and some without the top registration (eg, Piper Cherokee G-ASFL has the top wing reg when in early Loganair ownership in 1963. Subsequent re-paints seem to have not bothered re-instating it. I notice in the last few years that more and more current owners are returning their now classic aircraft to original schemes and are including the top wing registration again. As a rule of thumb, if the subject is pre- 'T' reg then I'll include the upper wing lettering unless I find evidence otherwise. I have actually built that Loganair Cherokee from the Aurora kit, and though I only found a confirmatory pic very recently, I had guessed correctly about the upper wing registration! You might find it helpful to look here on what not to do... Where I completed a Beaver floatplane last year. I confidently decided to leave the rivets on. I wish i hadn't. My home-produced transfers (on transparent stock) were a complete pain to get to stick. I have now soaked them off and re-printed new ones on white stock which I have found much easier to press around raised detail and won't show dark bits like you can see here
  7. Yes, my preference is enamel. Didn't know that about an additive. Certainly I seem to have to budget for replacement tins every summer (greater evaporation?) of nearly everything these days. I think the dead give-away is how much more 'crusting' appears round the tin lid compared to days of yore. I miss benzine in petrol too - snifffff mmmmm 🤪 https://www.knowde.com/stores/advansix/products/ez-blox?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=advansix_launch&utm_content=anti-skinning-agent&gclid=CjwKCAjw_uGmBhBREiwAeOfsd_gwRRnvJcpJ43eidsMxLMxlhl0Wjs-4Ud-gCMff6VK47pvcsJDDhBoC7C4QAvD_BwE https://www2.mst.dk/udgiv/publications/2004/87-7614-097-0/html/kap04.htm#:~:text=Anti-skinning agents are therefore added to solvent-borne air,where volatile types are preferred. ...looks much easier just buying new tins every year!
  8. After a bit of a gap, I've made some progress.... ...adding some peripheral components. What a difference some detail makes! In the brief interlude, my tin of gloss white crusted over, and against my better judgement I poked a hole in the surface like an Inuit looking for a fish and extracted enough paint for the final all-over coat. Inevitably, the old paint was infected with little lumps, so while waiting for some replacement paint to arrive, I sanded (1200 grade wet'n'dry) smooth as much as I could before reapplying another, hopefully smoother, coat or two. Not much to do now.
  9. I won't inflict upon the assembled masses the repetitive tedium of masking small areas, painting gloss white, watching paint dry, removing masking, repeat. ....but in between times, I made up undercarriages, where my spares box failed me - being without a pair of Chipmunk assemblies which I reckoned would have been ideal - I had to make 'em from scratch with the addition of a pair of Airfix Tiger Moth wheels (donated from a kit destined to be a floatplane). The perforated airbrake is a bit wobbly, but that was the best out of four attempts! Plus a cowling intake carved from a bit of stretched sprue painted black and not yet released from the sprue...
  10. Well, I thought the Magister and Moth Minor had obvious similarities, though as it turned out, only the Magister rudder was any use without severe modifications! The Maggie fuselage had a passing resemblance only, yet the cockpits were in the right place. The 'inspiration' if that's the right word, was that, for the first time in 50 years, during a clear out both the Maggie and the Jetstream were sitting side by side ready to be junked. I'd wanted a kit of the Moth Minor for that long, but had lost interest in the hobby by the time (I think) a vac form was released, but I didn't buy it (anyway, the few early vacs I had bought were pretty crude). I think Dujun have done a resin kit a mere 20-odd years ago, but I've never seen one for sale. With the adjacent Jetstream begging for re-use, something just 'clicked' with the wing-taper and I scaled up a line drawing from t'intenet, not in any great hope, but the outer wing coincided exactly! Serendipity I suppose. Would I have ever noticed the possibilities if they hadn't been sitting side-by-side? Even if I had, did it need this Group Build to put building a DH, but something different, in my mind at the same time? Who knows? This might not even be the easiest way to scratch-build a Moth Minor, maybe some plastic card would have been easier, but would that blank sheet have given me the inspiration to start? I doubt it. Anyway, this feels like 'proper' modelling like Alan W. Hall used to do in Airfix magazine in the 1960s. Ahhh! There's my inspiration!
  11. Hmmm...that worked well. I'll have to look for a 'smug' emoji! Wings masked off at the centre-section, three coats of thinned gloss white applied to the outers - I've not done the gloss top coat anywhere else yet, I just wanted to see if the rib masking worked. It was difficult to show in the photo, but I am delighted with the result. Well worth the effort and much better than my original attempt.
  12. ....this is my more subtle approach to 'starving cow' canvas... 1. Cut long strip of masking tape to width of ribs (minus a whisker) then short sections from this as required, this allows a bit of adjustment to any wobbly gaps which stretched sprue doesn't when attaching. 2. Thinned matt white painted into the gaps, I gave it four coats, which might actually have been too many, even though the model will need at least two coats of gloss white enamel on top. 3. Tape removed to reveal new ribs (which might get a light sanding to soften the edges a bit). A bit tedious (no more so that the sprue method) but is more accurate and consistent. Well, maybe. We'll see when the paint goes on. I still have to cut the deep groove for the aileron/flap joints.
  13. After much priming, sanding, filling, filing, rinse & repeat (I should really add 'bish bosh' to the title!) ...and in refining the shape I decided my 'starving cow' rib detail just didn't cut it, so orft it was jolly-well sanded too. A more subtle (I hope) alternative will be tried next, but I'm getting happy with the shape, just some minor details to add now (see what I did there?)
  14. At last! I finally get to use a bit off a De Havilland kit... ...the spare anti-spin strakes from an Airfix Tiger Moth kit (I've previously built two - on here somewhere - but as the early strakeless DH82), though a bit like the Magister fuselage, there is very little left once I finished whittling. Fitting these was instrumental in me realising that the rear fuselage was too fat and curvy. I also spotted (way after I should have) the protruding intake on the starboard side of the nose (third pic) and the need to fill in the aperture on the port. More whittling on the end of a bit of sprue did the (fiddly) job.
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