Navy Bird

RFI is here: Cheers, Bill

Thanks. I found a link to a 3-B Protractor (I guess the "3" means three arms): https://timeandnavigation.si.edu/multimedia-asset/model-3-b-protractor Man, I hate it when I learn something new every day - it means I have to forget something else in order to make room. Ah, so maybe I should add a pin-up calendar instead. Thanks Giorgio! All modelling outlays are money well spent. Until it interferes with, oh, I don't know, eating perhaps. Then you have to start divvying up the funds. Thanks Terry! I'm still waiting for Kitlinx to ship the stickers I ordered, I suspect they had to source it from Hannants first, so it will be a well-traveled decal sheet. California to the UK to Utah to New York, assuming Xtradecal are still printed by Microscale. Are they? Cheers, Bill

Give me a bottle of Mr Color C364 Interior Grey-Green, an obsolete airbrush, some caffeine jitters, and an inquisitive 2-year old climbing into my lap, and we can put some paint on this beastie. First up is a not-so-good shot of all that PE in the wheel wells - test fitting with the other half of the wing shows that you'll have to use a torch to see any of this stuff once she's finished. I painted the gear struts black as instructed by Dr Airfix (see - I can follow directions!) but I've found photos that show silver, grey-green, or black. The PE certainly tarts things up. The sidewalls of the cabin also received a bit of photoetch. I suspect none of this will be easily spotted once the greenhouse goes on, so best glance at it now. You may recall that I'm using the PE set for the Mk.IV, not the Mk.IVF, so if anything was added that shouldn't be there - well, thank goodness that none of it will be seen. Once the pilot and rumble seats were attached to their framework, I used the Eduard bits plus some PE harnesses from the Island of Misfit Etch. My mind must have been thinking Spitfire when I got around to adding the anchor point for the pilot's belts. Most likely that is not how it was done, but it looks nice. Anyway, the seats drop onto the sidewall nicely, and I think everything makes for a nice busy cabin. Did the navigator's desk actually have a drafting arm for use in plotting? Beats me, but it was on the PE fret, I paid for it, and I'm going to use it! I probably should add a map of some kind seeing as I've done that on every other build that's had a desk up front. So now I can start putting the fuselage together. I have to say this is a nice little kit. Thanks Mr Hornby for assisting me in the proper withdrawals from my retirement portfolio. Oh, you too Mr Ed. Cheers, Bill

Looking good! Well, no, actually it looks grimy. But that's good, eh? I had the same issue with the stabs on my Fine Molds Spook. When I first put them in, I thought they linked as the should (there was a nice "click"), but the anhedral was off by a huge amount from one side to the other. Took me a bit of fettling to realise I had not properly followed the tooling engineer's intent. Silly me. Cheers, Bill

Wee bit of forward motion. First, some PE bits for the main gear bays are installed on the lower part of the wing - and had to be trimmed just a bit as they were either too tall or I didn't glue them on in the right place... Next, more PE and some styrene to finish off the assembly of the main gear legs and retraction mechanism: Especially fun were the X-shaped PE bits that were only 4 molecules wide. I measured! And, of course, I didn't follow Eduard's instructions and had to slide them in place after all the styrene parts were assembled. Uh, not a good idea. Do what Eduard says. There are a few additional PE parts to be added, and I've verified from actual photos that they are normally present, but I will leave them off until later. If I add them now they will surely be kabloomered during the rest of the build since they are either teeny tiny loopy-loops or sticky outty thingies. How's that for precise aero-speak? Ugh, forgot the brake lines...well, they can go on later too. I think the wings can go together after I drill a couple of holes. Come to think of it, it's probably a good idea to paint the gear bays now in order to reach all the recesses etc. Pictures seem to show what looks like interior grey-green for the bays, and either that or black for the gear struts themselves. What do you folks reckon? Airfix say grey-green for the wells and black for the struts, except for the rust spots and the oil/grease stains. And, of course, silver for the shiny slidey spots. Cheers, Bill

Which is more fun - the Mustang or the beer? Cheers, Bill PS. Outstanding work on both!

Outstanding work, mate. Cheers, Bill

Cheers, Bill

It looks that way, but I'm not a Blenheim expert. I just had a casual look at the sprue shots in the reviews of the two kits. Thanks - so far so good on the fit of the PE. Always room for one more, Roger. Welcome, and be sure to point out anything I'm doing wrong! I know next to nothing about Blenheims, although I think I have some photos of a restoration up in Canada - Bolingbroke of course. I need to dig those out and see if they are of any help. The hardest bit so far was the X-shaped wires - the very definition of fiddly. You can bend those by looking at them, and you don't need to be Uri Geller. Thanks Terry. It will get much nicer when the main gear legs are on, along with even more PE. I did some testing myself, and will definitely be assembling the entire gear assembly before the wings go together. I'm surprised that Airfix didn't have you do it that way in the instructions, as it seems to be easier. I've read where some folks are joining the nose to the fuselage prior to putting the nose and fuselage halves together in order to get a better fit. Ever try that? ***** Not too much modelling today, as some stone work beckons in the garden. It's my mission in life, I can't wait. Ugh. Cheers, Bill PS. Little 2-year old Dexter tried to bring a snake into the house last Friday. At least he was holding it properly so it wouldn't bite him. The kid has no fear - doesn't understand this wild animal thing.

It's always beer o'clock somewhere... Thanks. There were times during the application of the decals that it was dangerously close to the bin. I seriously thought about removing all the paint and decals and finishing it as a standard F-4. But I'm glad I persevered as it does look quite nice. You can see the thickness of the decals if the light hits it at the right angle, and that brings back painful memories and that vinegar smell of Micro-Sol. Thanks Tony. The Sea Vixen is in the schedule for 2024! Thanks Cookie. Somehow I got all the stickers on - next time I build one of these Fine Molds Phantoms (and there will be a next time as it's required that I do at least one Spook each year) I'll know to pick up an aftermarket sheet of stickers. Thanks. My current project is a Blenheim IVF - more like my usual builds. Thanks for the compliment. I just bummed about the stickers. The model could have been so much better if Cartograf had printed them. That it does! I should measure the colours and see if they match the Pantone inks in the Pepsi logo. Cheers, Bill

Thanks Roger. Surely all the aftermarket will take the kit to another level - whether it's higher we'll have to wait and see. I'll do my best not to screw it up. Thanks for the tips. Your build looks great! I wouldn't have noticed the green if you hadn't mentioned it. All of the Bristol crankcases are black aren't they? I seem to recall reading that somewhere. I was hoping I would have all the bits, so I downloaded the instructions for the Mk.IV and compared to mine for the Mk.IVF. Looks like everything is there for either version, at least in this kit. Whenever I'm sanding my life away on some Aires resin I wonder if they ever actually tried to use their own products. It's odd, as I don't seem to have much trouble with the Quickboost stuff, and it's the same company. Welcome aboard Guv. Did you remember the beer? I think I ordered a Doom Bar and some chips. Triple fried... 🍺 🍟 Thanks Dave. I try to keep my jet/prop ratio to 50/50. Doesn't always work out that way (jets are currently in front 55/45) but that is much better than my biplane output which is null. And I've been called worse than a guinea pig... I wonder if resin dust is contributing to my never-ending sinus infection? Nah. It's not like I breathe the stuff. No, wait... I try to be very delicate with resin. I'm not always successful, but I try. The CMK resin bits have some odd pour block connections, so it will be interesting removing them. Resin is so much softer than most styrene and it is really easy to cut or sand too far. Fingers crossed. 🤞 I agree, the SAAF scheme, even though it looks like a standard Dark Earth/Middle Stone over Azure Blue, the orange in the roundel will really make it stand out. This build won't match up to the standards you set with your Defiant however. I am your humble servant. ***** A quick (?) session of photoetch origami today. Airfix have done a nice job with the main gear, but the wheel well itself is a bit sparse. And it has a big ejector pin mark right in the middle of the gear well "roof." The Eduard PE, once you fold up all the bits, reconstructs the roof and walls of the wheel well. Whether any of this is accurate, or just some more of Eduard's alternative facts, is beyond me. But it looks nice. First, the first portion of the Airfix parts: See that glint of brass over on the right hand side of the photo? Here is the rest of it: There is more once the main gear legs are added, but I think you can see that things will be more interesting with the PE. Of course, no one will ever see it unless I set it on a mirror. But you have to remember that my plan is to always make my mistakes on the underside, so a mirror might be out of the question. Off to fold up the other side. I believe Homer was referring to photoetch when he sang "pitiless bronze..." He just got his tin mixed up with his zinc. Cheers, Bill

Especially the resin. I always seem to get the resin that doesn't fit without sanding it wafer thin - the worst being any cockpit set from Aires. Thanks - let me know about any pitfalls you encountered with the kit. I hope it all fits - especially the engine as I think the detail in those castings is really going to pop after a wash. Cheers, Bill

My problem with the black vinyl was getting it to lay down and stay down - and with burnishing the edges to prevent paint bleed. I think the Kabuki tape works better. Welcome aboard. I'm really looking forward to see how the engines turn out. I'll need to add some wire for the push-rod tubes and cowling stays I suspect. Thanks Matt. I hope that folks who are knowledgeable in all things Blenheim will keep me on the straight path. I'm a neophyte when it comes to this type - I just learned how to pronounce the name correctly. ***** I compared the Eduard PE for the IV vs the IVF. For the interior fret, I'd guess 90% is the same, so I'll use that. The exterior, though, is maybe only 50% the same. Accordingly, I ordered the proper IVF exterior PE, along with Xtradecal sheet X72215 which has a SAAF IVF in desert camo stationed in North Africa. It also has some in Temperate Sea Scheme which look nice. Decisions, decisions. Cheers, Bill

I think it's time to build this one: I'm aware that the nacelles have a bit of Bolingbroke-itis, but I'm not worried. I'm too old to worry. Besides, I need to worry about all the aftermarket stuff I bought to go along with the styrene. I don't know why I buy all that stuff - I think it's because the websites list the goodies that apply to the kit you're buying, and it's just so easy to click "add to cart" a couple of hundred times. 🛒 I won't bore you with sprue pictures. You can find them here, along with a very nice review from @Mike: The sprues look quite nice, and the panel lines are a big improvement over the Airfix Skyhawk I recently built. Same soft plastic though. At first glance, I thought the framework on the nose greenhouse looked more pronounced and proud of the glass that it should be, but photos seem to show it was quite heavy indeed. Heck, just build it. I suspect I'll build her as shown on the box top, but I really like Xtradecal X72203 which has a couple of nice desert camo schemes with Azure Blue bellies. But those are Mk.IV birds, not Mk.IVF, and I don't believe my kit has the Mk.IV specific parts in it - the under-nose guns for instance. Maybe I can find a similar scheme for a Mk.IVF. I don't want to do an all-black night fighter, and I already have many Dark Earth/Dark Green aircraft in the collection. Maybe I'll poke around some more - surely there is something in Hannants' warehouse that will jump out at me. Were there any overall PRU Blue recce birds? So, aftermarket. I have the two PE sets from Eduard, one for the interior and one for the posterior exterior. Unfortunately I bought the ones for the M.IV and not the IVF. I am really getting old. Well, we'll see what can be used and what can't. Lousy photo, I know, but you get the gist. For resin, I have some wheels from Barracuda: And some very nice engines from SBS (it's a wonder they didn't include the pistons): Can't say I'm looking forward to removing all those exhaust headers, let only getting them in the right position to align with the collector ring. Speaking of which, is represented nicely inside the resin cowlings, also from SBS: The detail here is finer than the kit parts, and the cooling gills are much thinner which should result in a more realistic appearance. Airfix provide you with eight cooling gill parts, and I'm not sure why. With two engines, and the option of closed or open gills, I count four that would be required. What are the other ones for? At very quick glance, I can't say I noticed any real difference but I'm sure there is something as Airfix covered a lot of different marks with this tooling. Most likely four are for the Mk.I and the other four for the Mk.IV. You can't have a resin engine without a resin propeller - right? SBS again... And a nice set of intake and exhaust bits from Barracuda: Lastly, since I have become exceedingly lazy in my elder years, a masking set for all that glass and turrets: Somehow, a similar masking set from Montex was also a victim of the dreaded "add to cart." I may have purchased that before I had actually tried some of those black vinyl masks and found I didn't like them as much as the Kabuki tape. Whatever, it's there if I need it. So there you have it. Navy Bird leaves jets behind for a spell and tackles some props. 🛩️ Cheers, Bill PS. I'll keep working on the big Victor as well. Matter of fact, I was just doing the Mr. Surfacer deal on the wing tips. Slow, but it should be done prior to year end. 🤞

Thanks - I hope the WIP is helpful. One tip would be to wait for an aftermarket decal manufacturer like DXM to release this scheme. That would be so much better than what FineMolds supplied. Thanks Andy. I will give that a try next time I have some thick decals like this. With my luck, I will pick up the heat gun instead of the hair dryer and end up with a glob of liquid decal film! Thanks. I'm not sure it will fit into an envelope though... You know, I had that same thought. It's OK, the scheme is way cool, although it still reminds me of a Pepsi can. Decal Hell for sure. But now I know better - experience is what allows us to recognise our mistakes when we make them again. Thanks Mike. I'm still hanging in there, doing whatever the Infectious Disease crew tell me to do. It will go away eventually (I hope!). Speaking of that sea blue camo, I just picked up the Mr. Color set of those colours. I don't know if they are 100% accurate, but they sure look nice in the bottle. Thanks Terry. What's next? I'll work on the Victor on and off, but the mojo isn't fully back yet. I think my next project will be a Mk.IVF Blenheim (with every bit of aftermarket my wallet could handle). 1:72 of course... That they are. Such beautiful and colourful schemes - what's not to like? ***** Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. I appreciate them. Cheers, Bill

Mine is in progress, but on a bit of a hiatus. Great kit. Cheers, Bill

The Internet may be awash in images of the Tamiya kit, but it is now all the much richer for you adding yours. What an outstanding model! You can be very proud. Cheers, Bill

Excellent compendium of Vought aircraft. The results you achieved, especially from the old Monogram and Otaki kits, are brilliant. Cheers, Bill

Another masterclass from Fuad. Outstanding! 👍 👍 👍 Cheers, Bill

Hi mates, FineMolds have produced an amazing line of new tool 1:72 Phantom kits, finally surpassing the venerable Hasegawa, Revell, and ESCI offerings. (I've never seen any of the new Academy kits so I can't pass judgement on those and Fujimi still rules for the Spey versions.) I knew I had to build one of the new FM offerings as soon as I read the first online review - I picked the "Special Marking Blue" kit of the Phantom Farewell scheme from JASDF 301 Squadron because it's, like, cool. Lured by the beautiful metallic blue markings, and the allure of the new FM kit, I encountered the decals from Hell. I'm not sure why the Japanese manufacturers often have such thick decals. I've read about all the tricks - use hot water and Japanese solvents like Mr. Mark Setter and Mr. Mark Softer which, I'm told, have been formulated specifically for these kind of decals. If this is true, I still struggled getting these to snuggle down as I'm used to with Cartograf, Xtradecal, Microscale and the other usual suspects. Perhaps it was because the metallic blue ink process required many layers (pure speculation), perhaps it was because there were hectares of stickers, perhaps it was because I'm an idiot. In any event, I persevered until I gave up. Gallons of every decal solvent known to man. (Except for Solvaset - last time I used that stuff it melted the styrene.) It is what it is. Under the lack of illumination at the far reaches of my display case, no one will ever know. Well, except for you blokes I guess. Here's my usual summary: Project: McDonnell Douglas F-4EJ Kai Phantom II Kit: FineMolds kit No. 72838 Scale: 1:72 Decals: From the kit, but I don't want to talk about it anymore. Resin: Verlinden No. 439 Martin Baker Mk.7 ejection seats Photoetch: A couple of bits from Eduard No. SS209 Paint: GSI Creos H307 FS36320, H308 FS36375, H2 Black, H12 Flat Black, H11 Flat White, H317 Dark Gull Gray, H90 Clear Red, H94 Clear Green, GX112 UV Cut Gloss; Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black; Alclad ALC101 Aluminum, ALC103 Dark Aluminum, ALC111 Magnesium; Floquil 110015 Flat Finish Improvements/Corrections Not much - just the resin ejection seats. I also had to mix some paint to match the metallic blue for the forward portion of the wing tanks. I used GSI Creos H88 Metallic Blue and H35 Cobalt Blue. It's close, but not perfect. Don't ask me the ratios. WIP can be found here. Now for some pictures: In-process shot of stencil heaven: You can never have too many stencils. Cheers, Bill PS. Being a naughty boy, I didn't follow the instructions. But then who does? FineMolds have you painting and stickering the fuselage prior to adding the vertical fin. Say what?

Thanks Terry. I was scheduled for my Covid booster this Friday, but can't do it if I currently have the silly virus. Since this crazy thing began I've had four jabs of the Pfizer RNA vaccine - this booster will be number 5. My symptoms now are pretty mild, mostly aching joints and dizziness. No fever or shortness of breath. Keeping my toes crossed. Cheers, Bill PS. I guess I have to go and finish the Victor now.

I wish I had excellent insides. My tummy's been growling all day. Cheers, Bill

I have an entire closet full of Aloha shirts. Plus other goodies too - like a Spanish Inquisition t-shirt and a certified Medina Sod bowling shirt (from The Big Lebowski). I don't do tuxedos very well. 🤵 ***** So, let's add Covid to the list. I tested positive yesterday, as did my granddaughter Leah. We were both at the model contest on Sunday and I suspect we picked it up there. Symptoms are mild so far. Leah was my cashier at my vendor table - she even made a nice sign: Based on her spelling, I think she knows about my predilection for craft beers. Anyway, the sign did the job as I sold everything I brought - 54 kits plus all the aftermarket I had for each kit. As far as the contest goes, I had a good day (bribing the judges always helps). Gold for my Valom Northrop BT-1, Silver for my Airfix A6M2b Zero, Gold for the Revell/Matchbox PB4Y-2 Privateer, Gold for the Emhar F3H-2 Demon, Silver for the Airfix A-4B Skyhawk, and Silver for the Fine Molds F-4EJ Kai. Plus, the Privateer won the Best Aircraft award. Speaking of the F-4EJ Kai, here she is: RFI to come I suppose. Cheers, Bill PS. You'd have to pay me a lot before I'd do these decals again. The kit is amazing, but someone like Xtradecal need to make some THIN stickers for this scheme. PPS. Still looks like a Pepsi can and I'm not the only one who's mentioned that.

Anti-acquisition Department: Just about my entire stash is headed for the vendor's table at our local show on Sunday. Way too much stuff. Plus, I need some help to pay off the Hawaii trip. Cheers, Bill

Didn't help much in this case. I learned this trick a while back with respect to the decals on the Tamiya F4D, and have always done this with these type of decals. In this case, I used Micro Set/Sol, Mr. Mark Setter/Softer, MiG Ultra Decal-Set/Ultra Decal-Fix, etc. I didn't try my old bottle of Solvaset as it might melt the plastic... ***** Thanks guys. I just need to finish up the canopies, seats, and drop tanks and that's it. The decals on the drop tanks are particularly nasty, as they have to conform over a surface with compound curvature (different curvature in different directions). I flat decal won't do this without a LOT of help. Ugh. Cheers, Bill