Navy Bird

Perhaps it was my build of this kit? Not my best work by a long shot...and not AZ's best work either. Anyway, my answer to your question is on the first page of my WIP. The instructions from AZ are wrong. Cheers, Bill

Couldn't you find something smaller to work on? Cheers, Bill

Ha! Yes, everyone can uncross whatever they had crossed. Thanks again! ***** It really is good news. I was told at my first diagnosis that 5 years would be an excellent first remission, but it lasted 12 years and now I'm going on 9 years for this one. But, as my oncologist always reminds me, it's not a question of if I relapse, but when. I appreciate his honesty - I don't need rosy scenarios if they're not real. This is going to sound weird, but I kind of prefer to have the relapse sooner rather than later. Why? It's best to get the chemo when you're younger and your overall health is better. Although, now that I'm pushing 70 maybe that doesn't apply anymore. Besides, maybe this second remission will last forever! In any event, I'm really, really happy that the bullet was dodged - on with the Victor! (And the Sea Harrier FA.2 as well - I'm building one of those simultaneously.) Cheers, Bill PS. Panel line wash is complete on the Big Bird, and it's definitely too dark even though it's a light gray. I'll tone it down with some thin mists of white.

Thank you, everyone! Your fingers and toes did the trick - I dodged the bullet. The remaining three tests came back negative, which means everything that was identified in the first round of tests can be attributed to the crazy sinus infection that I've had for so long. Good news on that front as I mentioned previously - the surgery opened everything up nicely and I am not currently experiencing any symptoms of an infection. I'm not a guy who tends to worry about stuff, but I can't tell you how much stress I was feeling. I've gone through cancer twice and I've never felt this stressed out. Ugh. Now, where was I? Cheers, Bill

Well, the biopsy reports came back and they were "inconclusive." After a week of pathology and flow cytometry tests, the conclusion stated that the analysis "does not exclude the presence of lymphoma." The tissue samples are now being sent for "additional laboratory studies to include immunoglobulin gene rearrangement assay in situ hybridization for EBV (EBER), and CD30 immunohistochemistry." Not being an expert on anything in particular, I have no idea what any of that means. However, Dr. Google is always at hand - I think the first bit EBV (EBER) is checking for the Epstein-Barr virus, which is linked to, oh, a million and a half disorders including several subtypes of lymphomas. Needless to say the old anxiety meter has gone up to 11. 😕 I'm going to to send my oncologist a note saying "please convey final results to me using one of the following words: benign or malignant. No other words are required." Then again, all this stuff could simply be due to my year-long sinus infection. Which, by the way, seems to be gone. I had my "debridement" a few days ago, and my sinuses are clear - they haven't been this good in a long time. I still have to do my nasal saline/steroid rinses but I'm really pleased so far. 👍 ***** Today, I'm going to try and finish the panel line wash on the White Whale, and maybe even get some of the internals aluminiumized. Cheers, Bill

What a beast! Just like in real life. (The B-52, not Tom) Cheers, Bill

Thanks. I've saved them both to my sellers list. I thought the two words were "Hey Babe." Yeah, it's only because the Airfix kit for which it was designed had such a wide forward fuselage. I thought it might work as I was able to use one in my Fujimi FRS.1 kitbash, but no luck. Thanks. At first I thought you were referring to the former F1/Indycar driver, but he's Mark not Martin. Cheers, Bill

That's good news. I see Vintage & Collectibles Co. is selling a resin P.1B on eBay - is that the guy? I've saved them as a seller. Cheers, Bill

It should be relatively straightforward (famous last words). I see Special Hobby, like pretty much everyone else, has the spine navigation night on centre...will have to fix that too. The photo I posted clearly shows it off-centre. Hey, that's a good idea too. I have the Airfix new tool Lightning F.2A and the Alley Cat F.1 conversion set - that seems like a good place to start. Thanks to Sword, we have some two-seaters available in a "modern" tooling. I would really like to get my hands on the Whirlybird P.1/1a. Always liked that design. Anyone know where that tooling ended up? Back to work...(cleaning the house BTW, not modelling). Cheers, Bill

Thanks Roger. Magic may actually be required - at least that's my experience with a lot of these short run kits. Yes, the surgery itself wasn't too bad (I slept through it) but I'm a bit concerned on the biopsies. Normally all the test results get posted immediately to my online records, but these haven't. Instead I get a message that I'll be reviewing them with my doctor. I'll find out this Thursday I guess. Special Hobby was not too far off (other than the vortex generators). Here is what I'll need to modify on the Hasegawa wings - I see the removal of one dogtooth and one vortex generator plus the addition of one wing fence: Glutton for punishment? Ain't that the truth! Thanks Colin. I have this idea that I should build all marks of Harrier, but so far all I have are the FRS.1 and the T.4. In the stash are the Airfix GR.1, GR.3, and GR.7/9 kits. I think that leaves a few marks unaccounted for. Someday... ***** Work has commenced on the pilot's office. The Pavla resin cockpit made for the Airfix kit won't work without sanding away almost all of the side consoles so I'm using what Special Hobby provided. Strangely, the turtledeck for behind the ejection seat is not mentioned at all in the instructions. It's provided in styrene, but they didn't reproduce it with the other resin "Hi-tech" parts. If I build according to the instructions (who does that?) there would be a big hole behind the seat. Cheers, Bill

Hi mates, I'm opening up another project alongside of the big Victor. I was going through my stash the other day and found a bunch of stuff that might be a fun build. Although, this is a short run kit with a bunch of aftermarket that isn't designed for it - sounds like a typical Navy Bird project to me! First, der Boxentoppen: I'm sure everyone is familiar with this SHAR FA.2 kit as it's been around for a decade or more since its birth in an Xtrakit box. This is Special Hobby's "Hi-tech" version of the kit, and its high tech-ness is only earned by a few resin bits for the cockpit and a small PE fret. Here are the main sprues (if you're not familiar with short run kits, look away now): (A quick note on this kit - it is obviously based on the Hasegawa FRS.1 kit. Special Hobby added the required spacer to increase the fuselage length, which you can see above on the starboard fuselage half as it's not as shiny as the rest. Many of the bits are interchangeable between Special Hobby and Hasegawa, and an example will be shown later.) Wonder how those Sidewinders will fly without any rear fins? Oops, silly me, they're on the PE fret. This is an interesting design decision - the front fins are moulded in, but PE fins are provided, and the rear fins are PE only. Looking at the instructions, it appears that the PE front fins are to be attached to the moulded in fins. Odd. Special Hobby do us a favour by at least providing PE alignment templates for the fins. For the AAMRAM missiles, all fins are PE. I like the Oxford Blue anniversary scheme. It's right up my alley. Now, one of the first things I do with Harrier kits is find a way to improve the intake shrouds and those pesky little doors that droop down when at rest (I scratchbuilt the doors for my FRS.1 and I don't want to do that again!). I have two sets, both from Pavla (I also have the Freightdog set but it's gone AWOL for the moment): EDIT: Freightdog set found and it's the best of the lot in terms of quality casting. Since the Special Hobby kit is so closely related to the Hasegawa kit, I suspect the intakes for Italeri/ESCI will be the better fit. The exhaust nozzles almost always have to be replaced as well, and it looks like I used one set of those on some other project (probably the T.4). Special Hobby's approach is interesting, as the provide the internal exhaust vanes in PE - that just might look nice. I'll have to make do with the resin bits shown here or see how the kit's exhausts turn out. For the cockpit, Special Hobby provide a resin tub, ejection seat, and control stick. I also have the Pavla set designed for the Airfix kit, but as you can see it looks a wee bit wide. Those of you who remember that particular Airfix kit will know why. Anyway, I might be able to make some of this stuff work. We'll see. The ejection seat is certainly nicer in the Pavla set but it won't fit in the Special Hobby tub without losing a lot of its side framework. In the photoetch department, there is the fret that came with the kit, plus this set designed for Airfix. I imagine I'll find something in there that I can superglue to my fingers. Topping it all off are resin wheels and outriggers. These are required as the same parts supplied with the kit are pretty soft. So those are the raw materials - some more raw than others. At the end of the day, I hope I can make it into a nice companion for my Fujimi FRS.1. One rather silly issue with the Special Hobby kit is that they decided it would be a great idea to engrave the vortex generators on the top of the wings. I thought maybe I could cut up little tiny bits of incredibly thin card stock to make my own vortex generators, and then use the engraved lines as a gluing template. I actually gave it a shot and then decided that it might be a better idea to preserve the last few tendrils of my sanity instead. Then I remembered I had a bunch of leftover Hasegawa parts from my Fujimi FRS.1 kitbash, and lo and behold I found some vortex generators. Special Hobby (top) and Hasegawa (bottom): Don't let the perspective fool you - these parts are the exact same size and shape. Here is the Hasegawa wing stuck onto the Special Hobby fuselage: I know that the Hasegawa FRS.1 wings need some mods to become FA.2 wings, but I'm pretty sure that will be easier than making all those tiny vortex generators. In any event, I think this will be a fun project. Will it be 100% accurate? Of course not. Will I make any big blunders? You bet! But I'll put those on the bottom. Cheers, Bill

Me too! Now I just need to get through the results of the biopsies. Oh, and the official "debridement" of my sinuses next Thursday. I had to look that one up - it sounds lovely. You know you're in for some fun when the nurse tells you to prepare by taking a couple of Oxycontin pills beforehand as it may be "uncomfortable." I think they told my wife that going into labor might be "uncomfortable." Ugh. Cheers, Bill PS. On a positive note, I can now breathe through my nose, which I think is what you're supposed to do. But it's been so long...

Thanks everyone. I have officially survived the surgery. Cheers, Bill PS. But it wasn't fun. Now I get to wait for the biopsy results. 🤞 PPS. The post-op nasal rinses I'm doing at home are ... interesting. Let's just leave it at that.

I no longer have any words. And for me to be speechless is quite an accomplishment on your part. Cheers, Bill

Don't take these as representative of the finished product, but I've begun to fool around with a panel line wash. The contrast between the white and the grey wash is much less in person. I tried to get photos that were closer to reality, but hey - I'm not a photographer. Heck, I don't even work for a living. Anyway, the grey in the wash is FS36495 which is the lightest grey I had without mixing. Some things I noted. The panel lines are reasonably petite on this model, which is good. The depth varies considerably, though, which can easily be seen in those areas where the wash didn't take (this was a sludge wash). That is a pretty easy fix, so I'm not too worried about that. My plan of action at this point is to continue with the rest of the panel lines (and there are a lot of them). Once I'm happy with them, I may spray a highly thinned coat of white over the entire model again just to knock them back some more. But even if I didn't do that, I think they look OK and they certainly add some interest to an otherwise white whale. Once the roundels, codes, walkways, and stencils go on, it might look quite busy indeed. Cheers, Bill PS. Surgery set for 10:30AM tomorrow. It's outpatient, but don't expect me to do any modelling tomorrow evening. I'll be asleep.

Beats me. I named the thread this way because it's what I had for dinner that day...and I like alliteration. Cheers, Bill

You don't want to know how much that trip to Hawaii cost me. But, you only have a 50th anniversary once - unless, of course, you add one more to the harem and outlive Methuselah - so you might as well go hog wild. Besides, I've never seen a hearse with a luggage rack. Carter is just now starting the Revell 2017 Ford GT kit (no. 85-1235). It only has 27 parts, but it is very nicely moulded. I (and Carter) especially like the pre-painted window frames. Plus, Revell give you the choice of water slide transfers or stickers. It's a perfect kit for a soon-to-be seven-year old. Cheers, Bill PS. And I'm still trying to finish the Airfix Victor kit...at least it's painted now.

Thanks Gerard. The fine folk here on BM are amazing - the support is great and it really means a lot to me. Looking forward to seeing your build in the GB. Oh, it comes out all right. The SNOT test is simply 22 questions where you rate your answers on a scale of 0 to 5 (or was it 10?). Anyway, your ratings are then added up and the total is used to predict how you might survive benefit from the FESS Surgery. FESS stands for Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. As part of my pre-admission testing, I was required to watch two videos; one on anesthesia and one on FESS. My ENT doctor is a very nice lady who has done hundreds of these procedures so I feel comfortable letting her poke and prod inside my nose with a miniature Roto-Rooter. She told me she intends to open up all of my sinuses, and that it will take 3-4 hours. Yikes! She will also collect tissue for the biopsies. I really hope this works, because I think we tried everything else over the last year! Cheers, Bill

Nicely done. Cheers, Bill

Beautiful work, David. You can never have too many bent wings. Cheers, Bill

Funny you should mention that. I learned how to spray paint when I worked in an automotive body shop when I was 16 (circa a long time ago). That was in the days of lacquer paint that dried flat and had to be rubbed out to shine, and prior to the advent of automotive enamels and clear coats (that didn't need to be baked under heat lamps). I still prefer to use a lot of thinner; my typical mix using Mr. Color is 50:50. The Model H with a #1 needle can produce a reasonably nice, thin line but not as nice as my Harder & Steenbeck Infinity X CRplus. Paasche recently combined the #1 and #3 into the same needle, and I don't think that works as well as separate needles. The Model H that Paasche sells now is essentially the same as mine. I think the only difference is mine has a stipple adjustment (which I've never used). That feature has been removed from the current brushes. There is an 8-32 set screw that holds the needle in place - I've replaced that with an 8-32 thumb screw so I don't have to fiddle around with a hex wrench. Cheers, Bill PS. I use the Model H for ~95% of my painting.

This is an Italeri kit. I have this same Testors boxing in my stash, and it says made in Italy, both on the box and on the bag that contains the sprues. The Italeri logo is on both ends of the box, plus the sprues are labelled 191A and 191B - the Italeri catalog number is 191. From the now-defunct yf-23.net website: Italeri was the first company in the world to release a scale model of the YF-23. Considering the lack of information at the time, it was not a bad effort. It was not up to the standard of Hasegawa, it did not have recessed panel lines, but nevertheless it was a start. The tooling actually depicted PAV-1 only; no separate parts were included for PAV-2's distinctive trough and shroud. The decals included markings for PAV-2 nevertheless, but they were pretty basic and not comprehensive enough to do a good job. The kit was then picked up by Testors (nos 657 and 0191) as they had an existing relationship with Italeri. Revell then reissued this tooling some years later (no 4326), followed by Tamiya (no 60715). It is dimensionally accurate, but will need some refinement to make an accurate model. The really frustrating thing was that none of the decal sheets that came with any release were accurate nor complete. Each one was either missing something or was printed in the wrong colour or shape. Caracal Models have now remedied that problem with a new decal sheet dedicated to the YF-23. Dragon also released a kit of the YF-23 which was a different tooling, but it had some serious contour inaccuracies and is not worth bothering with. It should be considered as no more than a toy. Of course, it was the Dragon kit that I built back then! In any event, the YF-23 was a cool bird. Cheers, Bill PS. Just realised my Dragon YF-23 is still in my display case. I don't recall if the kit was designed this way, or if I hacked it up, but my model has the slats and flaps lowered, plus the vertical fins/tailplanes posed in a non-neutral position. I think the "contour inaccuracy" comment is concerning the spine. I wouldn't call it a toy though. It has recessed panel lines, but the bomb bay is moulded shut.

Enamel or lacquer schmutzing agent? It's 6 or 8 coats of Testors 2143 RLM21 Semi-Gloss White enamel, thinned about 75:25 (thinner to paint - the paint is kinda thick to begin with) with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner, sprayed at 20 psi with an archaic Paasche Model H single action, external mix, siphon feed airbrush with the #5 needle, air cap, and "color adjusting part." Caveats: In general, I hate Testors paint. However, I do like this one. Of course, Testors has discontinued it. They believe it is more profitable to produce paint for craft projects, like dangly things and bead necklaces. They're probably right. I love Mr. Color Leveling Thinner, and have been known to pay outrageous prices to procure it. Gunze knows how to make a profit off us modellers. I bought the airbrush in 1979. I love it. It's faithful, unlike some of my pets. The #5 needle is 1.0mm. Seriously. With this combo it is possible to make believe you're using a spray can, but you don't have to hold it upside down to clean out the nozzle. Be careful - check my thinner ratio. Move the airbrush quickly and do NOT start or stop motion unless you are off of the model. Unless you like spits, spatters, and puddles. ***** I'll fix the oops (two of the most painfully obvious ones are clearly visible in the photos) and then probably do some experiments to see how I want to approach de-monochromatizing it. Is that a word? It should be. First though, I'm going to have a lie down. I'm tired. Cheers, Bill

White is the new white. There are a couple of spots to fix, but overall things look OK. The question is how to reduce the overwhelming monochromatic look. I don't really want to scruff it up with a bunch of weathering - I like the clean look. On my TSR.2, I did a very light grey panel line wash which I think was successful. Maybe that's what I'll do - then the two models will match if they are next to one another in the display case. The walkways and other markings will break things up as well, and the exposed areas under the flaps and inside the gear bays and air brakes will add some colour. We'll see. Cheers, Bill PS. This is like building an airliner.

You can see pictures of all the sprues here: https://www.modellversium.de/kit/artikel.php?id=11973 Cheers, Bill