Fritag

Morning all, Ummh. Yes. well. Wot Ian said. I've not lost motivation or interest in this little build. If anything quite the reverse. But it's just a very busy time of year leaving little if any time for the pleasures of one's hobby. I've been skiing already in Austria with some old Jag-pals (old being an appropriate adjective for both the aircraft and the pilots) and am shortly to go to Chamonix with Mrs F . And in between times it's been a case of working 'ard and legal type stuff to get ahead of the game to go skiing and then to catch up afterwards. Mid Feb is pencilled in for re-commencement of modelling activities... I've found that when not actively able to do modelling it's often better for the Friday morale not to frequent the BM site too often... I should have replied to this earlier Steven. Sorry. I use a Mars 3 printer and Elegoo water washable resin. The printer is in the garage and this time of year I use on of those little in-printer heaters to warm the resin and the in-printer environment to c.25 degrees C.

I'd forgotten just how well you explained your process during the Wapiti build, Alan. It's been a reminder and a treat and still an education to go back to it.

Lovely work, G. One does like a properly populated 'pit, doesn't one?

Oy! How did: Get to: To: To: To: To: It's that bl**dy Alan's fault obviously.... Oh - and that's mostly his fault n'all

Shocking Ian I, for my part, have finished 3 models this year (we needn’t of course concern ourselves with how long two of them were under construction). Oh and a tremendous demonstration of why we all really need a silhouette cutter

Do like the Beaufighter, do like a Chris Beaufighter…

Like the effect with the Tamiya Smoke. Having a rare-old fight with this one, Garth; but skill is winning out

Fine fettling, Bill. Your persistence in modeling ridiculously small and complicated aircraft in 1/72 scale is a testament to your skills or stubbornness or both

I have to say that the finish you’ve achieved suits my taste practically perfectly. A masterclass I’d say.

Fine work Bob, and clever use of the insert from the Arma kit (which I agree is magnificent). I'll follow along if I may and shamelessly watch out for tips and tricks

Has it really been 2 weeks already since Telford? I'm still quite shocked to report that I didn't but anything at the show.... Not quite the same as not spending anything of course. Travel, room, beer, meal..... But I could look Mrs F in the face and say I didn't spend anything at the show..... Came back with a box of models courtesy of Airfix, but that's a different matter. Anyway. And jolly fine progress it is too, Bob. Now I've found your thread I'll be shamelessly looking for hints and tips to pinch. In the fraternal spirit of the brotherhood of modelling obvs. Glad you did, Troy as it's info I need too. Although I'd have found it on Bob's thread anyway. Maybe one less panel line to have to fill.... Yes I've read as much as I can on the various discussion threads. I had been thinking of modelling HV594 'P', mainly because it's tucked away in the fabulous colour photo's of 6 sqn IIds taking off from Gabes on 6 April 43 and yet doesn't crop up as kitted very often if at all. But I know that Bob is modelling 'P' and it seems a bit daft for us both to do the same aircraft at the same time (although he's gonna finish before me by a good margin) and so I'm now thinking of doing KW704 'R', which is even more tucked away in the same series of photographs and has the aestthetic advantage (to my mind) of being a block 8 'KW' series and so probably was interior green throughout and with azure blue wheel wells - and I can junk the aluminium! Although I reserve the right to change my mind several times more Incidentally as I understand it KW704 was lost the next day, on 7 April 43, and it's pilot, Fg Off Clark was KIA. The 6 and 7 April 43 were intense days for 6 sqn and perhaps as many as 12 aircraft were shot down and perhaps 6 pilots killed. I've been mainly thinking and tinkering on the ol' Hurricane for the past few weeks and decided that, whilst the Arma kit isn't the cheapest in the world, I'd better get a second one to practice modifications/test ideas etc on. So that did for any savings I made by not buying owt at Telford So with second kit ordered, first up was some testing out the fit of the Vickers S Gun, which needs an 'ole in the bottom of the wing and the removal of the fuel tank rear bracket: Pretty straightforward that and I'll take a bit more care to make the wing cut out neat 'for real'. Now, just peeking into view behind the seat on a few of those piccies is something else I've been playing about with. I said at the outset that I wasn't going to go the full Gerald Scarborough (referring back to the 1970's book on the Hawker Hurricane accompanying the Airfix 1/24 scale Hurricane in which Gerald Scarborough opened up all the side panels on a build), and I'm, still not minded to; but I did have a play with Fusion, using the Arthur Bentley drawings as my guide, and produced this 'proof of concept' model. It's only crude at present - and lacks any fine detailing, but the flare tube, radio and deserts survival equipment are roughed-in for sizing. And a quick rough print, not worrying about best orientation or splitting it down into components to optimise the prints: Forgive the crudity of the quick print, but as a positive the Arma seat/frame matches up very nicely indeed to my frame based on the AB drawings (or p'raps I should really say that my frame matches up nicely with the Arma seat/frame)... Oh and you can see I've had a practise at removing the upper wing cannon bulges and filling the cannon hatch lines. Tried the alternatives of black cyano and a spru-goo for line filling duties. I think I'll have to protect the raised rivets as much as I can - and then reinstate the ones destroyed, as much as I can, with recessed rivet lines. Should pass muster under paint. I have drawn the fuselage frame all the way back to the tail, in case it's needed, but didn't print it for this test. And then I cut out (not as neatly as I should've done) all the side panels on the poor old Arma test kit and had a look to see if it all fitted together correctly and to see what could be seen. And this is the result: I have to say that it all fits much better than I could have hoped and is actually pretty bloomin promising. Now I'm not sure that I want to do all the work required to populate the insides enough to pass muster; and I'm also not sure that I like the look of the Hurricane with all of these panels removed - spoils the lines a little to my mind. But it's food for thought. Something else I've been tinkering about with is replacements for the kit fish tail exhausts, which are understandably a bit plain. Back to Fusion. I also designed fishtails for the Defiant and tbh they're tricky little b*ggers; but here is my Hurricane design: And test printed: Comparison: And test fitted: Them'll do methinks. And so folks, that's where matters rest at the mo'. Still in the mucking about stage that seems to happen in all of my builds. Maybe I have commitment issues?

Serkan, you continue to impress, delight and inspire in probably equal measure. The geek in me would love a bit more detail on how you managed to generate such a delightfully smooth flowing body surface

Extremely impressive. The construction is obviously excellent but it's the painting and finishing that IMHO lifts it into the top class. Very fine weathering - I particularly like the treatment on the green radar bullet.

Immaculate.

Ouch. That’s a b*gger, Garth. I’m not an experienced acrylic user - tend to use colourcoats enamels where possible - but I have noticed on occasion that I’ve had greater success dry rather than wet sanding acrylics. And I’m another, like Rob, interested in that wavy line cutter.