BritJet

Thanks guys. I tidied a few things up and got a coat of primer on. Looks a lot better now it's all one colour. Steve

Had a bit of an accident with the one wing cracking open down the resin joint whilst I was clearing the filler out of a couple of panel lines. It was one of those moments where you see hours of work about to disappear before your eyes! Luckily it glued back in place ok and only needed a touch more filler so with that sanded down it's ready for the first painting session. The photos show some work still to do, but I'm happy with that. Steve

Thanks James. I went with the white plastic moulding and set the clear window into it, definitely better than the thin clear moulding. The last thing I wanted was for the blister to get squashed after doing the Alclad Managed to get the filler rubbed down this evening and the joints look good so the next step is a squirt of primer. No doubt that will show up where some more work is needed but I don't think there'll be too much. I'll get some more photos tomorrow before it's primed. Steve

Cheers, it's starting to get there now. Resin parts in place and joints filled, not too much to sand down, luckily! The filler behind the main gear bays is in the airbrakes as the prototype airbrakes were very different. Got the vacform mould made and it works ok, from left to right the vacform mould, first moulding from white plastic and three clear blisters. The far right one isn't yellowed but is in the shadow of my lamp! Not sure yet whether to use the clear mouldings as they are a bit thin and might get squashed. I might use the white one and set the round window into it, it will glue onto the fuselage better as well. Steve.

Cheers John. The next part that needs to be changed is the bomb aimer's blister under the nose and the prototype had a much smaller blister. This is the kit part; I found a resin blister in my spares box that gave a good starting point and after some hacking I got the required shape. It's just fixed onto some masking tape with a drop of superglue so I can check the size and shape. Here the flat circular window has been added and the shape refined a bit more. Next step will be to polish out the scratches and then make a mould so then I can vacform the blister. Steve

Thanks guys. Not managed to get much done on this due to work getting in the way as usual and decorating to keep swmbo happy...... The replacement moulds cured properly and after leaving them for a couple of days to fully cure I got a couple of sets of resin out of them. No issues with the resin and only a couple of small bubbles to deal with. Due to the design of the intake moulds I did have a small part of the rubber get into the wrong position which left a small depression but that will easily fill later. If I cast any more of these I know what went wrong and can avoid it happening again - practice makes perfect but also uses up the resin! Test fitting not showing any problems, there was always going to be some filling to do with the amount of plastic I am replacing with resin but this look ok. This shows the depression in the resin intake that needs filling - easy enough. Still a long way to go but it's definitely coming together now. Steve

My info was from Wrecks&Relics so I can't say for definite that it served with 43 but the service histories given are usually spot on. Steve

If it's a 1/76 OO scale kit which most of their's seem to be then it will need to be printed at 316% to get to 1/24 - 76/24*100. If it's not 1/76 then substitute the the scale into that equation. Hope this helps. Steve

It's been a while since I've done much on this but I have now finished the new engine sections, undercarriage bays, intake trunking and inner main gear doors. The first half of the rtv moulds for the engines and the single part moulds for the other parts are seen here. The last batch of rtv I mixed up didn't cure fully so this was cleaned off and re-done with the next mix. Just about had enough rtv to get all the moulds made after having to waste this Steve

Hi It's XV591 and served with 892, 43 and 111 squadrons. Hope that helps. Steve

To sit in the back of his full size pink Rolls Royce, obviously........ Steve

Kits For Cash had got two yesterday at the Hinckley show Steve

Nice choice Cliff, I've got one of those somewhere...... Looking forward to seeing what you do with it, good luck. Steve

I am going to be making moulds from the new engine parts so let me know if you're interested. A few simple changes to make to backdate the Airfix kit - remove all the vortex generators from the fin, reshape the fin tip and the small fairing under the rudder, add the trim tab actuators and change the lower line of the rudder. Most of these changes are needed for a B1 anyway. Remove the vortex generators from the tailplane; Cut the inner main gear doors at right angles; Remove the vortex generators, fuel dump pipes and reshape the wing tips; Steve