Procopius Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 When the Chairman of the Board personally presented me with a 30-year plaque and gift, he asked to what could I attribute my outstanding loyalty to the company - I replied "lack of ambition." Didn't go over well. Our new boss did the performance appraisal interviews last week and was adamant that, "honesty would be appreciated". First question; "Where can you see yourself in two or three years time?" I guess, "Not working for this flipping company." , wasn't quite the answer he was hoping for A number of years ago, when I was still a call center representative instead of the rather more lofty Social Media Manager I now am, I was asked (after getting in a spot of trouble for running my mouth off), "where do you see yourself in five years?" "Face-down in a ditch somewhere," I replied. Incredibly (and this was at the height of the Great Recession), I wasn't fired. In general... I assume you've seen 'Love Thy Neighbour' and 'On The Buses' then. I've read about them in Alwyn Turner's "Crisis? What Crisis?" and Dominic Sandford's two books on the decade, but never had the dubious pleasure of watching them myself. Nice to have a face, voice and silver fingers to go with the avatar! Some men have a silver voice, or wear a pair of silver wings, but I'll settle for silver fingers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 I closed up the fuselage today. In my experience, Czech limited run kits seem to have tons of cockpit detail, far more than, say, an equivalent Airfix, Revell, or Tamiya kit might. (Let alone Hasegawa.) In my further experience, they never seem to actually check if all of this lovely stuff fits within their two fuselage halves, or, at best, they have a naively optimistic idea of how fine their molding equipments' tolerances are. The cockpit, composed of firewall, seat armour, seat, instrument panel, floor, and the tubular frameworks, didn't fit. After much sanding and scraping, it was more or less made to fit together, thanks to many clamps and repeated sanding down of the cockpit sides. So many moving parts (metaphorically speaking) is just asking for trouble on a model molded at this level of quality, yet Brengun is not the only company to make this schoolboy (or might I say školák) error; AZ immediately comes to mind. Mindful of Cookie's earlier suggestion to sand down the turtledeck behind the canopy, I traced its outline with a mechanical pencil (other types of pencil available) and went to town. I sanded this down, then scraped out some more of the clear part with a metal rasp (precision tools for a precise man). After a fair amount of work, here is where we are. This is just a test fit. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Ah, When all else fails, use brutal unreasoning force. Nice save! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Nice one PC, it looks like it just about fits, your persistence has paid off If you fix it with Gator's Grip/PVA that ought to fill any remaining spaces between the canopy and the fuselage decking I would think... Cheers, Stew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Closed up! Good job PC, it looks like you've mastered that one. I share your pain... The canopy fit's looking good too and I second Stew's suggestion of PVA / Gator's Grip. You can clamp the canopy on, lay this on pretty thick and clean up with a damp brush while it's still wet (but you probably already know that bit eh?) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonl Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Great save on the canopy and a good start. After the Valiant I'll pull up a chair for this one too... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Can you sand or scrape the bottom edge of the canopy along the sides, so it's at an angle that matches the slope of the fuselage? Cheers, Bill 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 Can you sand or scrape the bottom edge of the canopy along the sides, so it's at an angle that matches the slope of the fuselage? I can, and have! I think a large part (but not all) of the problem is that the clear part is very thickly molded, so I've been trying to add a subtle curve to it. I don't really do subtle well, but I think it helped. As a side note, I cut out one of the vacform Typhoon canopies Stew mailed me (thanks again, Stew!) and it fits almost perfectly. But I've already gone to all the trouble of masking this one, so. If you fix it with Gator's Grip/PVA that ought to fill any remaining spaces between the canopy and the fuselage decking I would think... The canopy fit's looking good too and I second Stew's suggestion of PVA / Gator's Grip. You can clamp the canopy on, lay this on pretty thick and clean up with a damp brush while it's still wet (but you probably already know that bit eh?) This is where my thoughts are heading at present (using PVA, I don't own any Gator Grip), along with some Perfect Plastic Putty to hide the join. Just have to paint the fuselage that will be covered by it first. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Nice save PC, you've remolded it perfectly. Looks like the metal rasp was the right tool for the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 (edited) You have done a grand of that canopy, nice work! As for the job, if you leave leave on a high and then come back for more money.... Worked for me.... I am now safe in the knowledge I am paid more than some of the other people at my level, a warm feeling. However I now have a very tall angry boss with a voice like Tom Jones, who wip's me like an Irish jockey (the best kind of jockey) in the gold cup trying to get a nose ahead of the rest.... Every cloud and all that. I just hope that it gets me a promotion and some more of that money stuff that makes the world go round Rob Edited February 23, 2016 by rob85 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 Winston's been allowing us very little sleep, and now Mrs. P has caught his cold. It won't be long before my (by comparison) iron constitution succumbs to this social treason in my own home. As it is, I've slept maybe four or five hours in the past two days. I feel Mrs. P's resolve to have a second little scream factory (in pink) is wavering. If so, all these sacrifices will be worth it. On the other hand, if she keeps leaving her damn ipad in the bed and then knocking it to the floor and waking the baby, she's going to leave this world in a manner not unlike the abrupt departure of Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal, with the ipad playing the part of the millstone. In any event, I got some more done on the Tiffy. I had painted the turtledeck, but it looked like crap, and I sanded it down, added filler, and sanded some more. Then, as I perused the Valiant Wings Typhoon book (which is about 60% useful information to 40 "why is this here?", IMO), I realized there were tons of gubbins abaft the seat armour, so I added them. I managed to lose the little...a small...a thingamajig. So I scratched a rough replacement for it. I also bit the bullet and put together the hilariously overelaborate wheel wells. The wheel wells are (of course) rather too tall to fit in the wings, so there's a bit of sanding in my future, but after that things get a little easier. Still with me, Beard? How're we doing? who wip's me like an Irish jockey (the best kind of jockey) At work, or socially? 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Educational and amusing post as always PC, nice scratchwork on the gubbins too Cheers, Stew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Still with me, Beard? How're we doing? I think you're doing fine and, I've found a suitable box so I just need to find the money to pay the postage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 I also bit the bullet and put together the hilariously overelaborate wheel wells. In my warped mind this is a good thing! In my experience, kids germs are more contagious than the black plague, and just about as nasty. It's funny that it stops so abruptly when they start school... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Looking good PC, nice scratching. Another 'little one' is always on the cards but I'm not sure you can choose the sex yet (can you?). Don't believe all the stories that they'll play together... in my experience they compete for attention, even if it is in a 'nice' way. If you are going to expand the family I would recommend you do it soon - that way you get all the baby stuff out of the way over a few years instead of having a much deserved gap and then going through it again (and having to re-buy the tools) when time has blunted the pain. Ours are about 18 months apart and I think that's a good gap IMHO. Hopefully you'll get some more sleep soon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 I think you're doing fine and, I've found a suitable box so I just need to find the money to pay the postage. Well, I was hoping that this would leave you feeling like the kit's eminently buildable.,.seems I've failed. If you're serious about not building the kit, I'll happily pay postage (or mail the cut-out vacuform canopy that's 98% model ready to you if that's the only insurmountable challenge, so you can still build it). In my experience, kids germs are more contagious than the black plague, and just about as nasty. It's funny that it stops so abruptly when they start school... Au contraire! Mrs. P is a teacher of 3-6-year-olds, and they carry the Black Death into that school. She gets hideously sick every start of term. Another 'little one' is always on the cards but I'm not sure you can choose the sex yet (can you?). You can, but frankly I think doing so scootches you a little closer to the edge of the boundary encompassing the human race. Don't believe all the stories that they'll play together... in my experience they compete for attention, even if it is in a 'nice' way. I am the oldest of four children (my first sibling arrived 18 months after me, then after they forgot what it was like, my parents had another three years later, and then they made a mistake and had my brother the following year). Whenever Mrs. P tells me a sibling would be a friend for Winston, I sneer bitterly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Well, I was hoping that this would leave you feeling like the kit's eminently buildable.,.seems I've failed. If you're serious about not building the kit, I'll happily pay postage (or mail the cut-out vacuform canopy that's 98% model ready to you if that's the only insurmountable challenge, so you can still build it). I was being only semi-serious. My one is way, way down my to-do pile so let's see how you get on with your one. If you make a complete pig's ear of it, you can have mine for free and I wouldn't accept payment for postage. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 If you make a complete pig's ear of it Not gonna happen. (Could conceivably happen.) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoshenko Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Coming along nicely Mr P, despite the trials and tribulations, and the somewhat over-engineered elements. Industrial clamping does the trick though. Enjoyed your foray into the silver screen too (okay, You Tube but you gotta start somewhere). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 So I worked from home today, and naturally I thus spent my whole day chained to my laptop. It was tough, with the model so close, but so far out of reach at the same time. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get a chance to work on it later. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 temptation manfully evaded... ish? Looks very like a Typhoon in the brewing, almost as if that's what is expected Amazing huh 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 "While I was working I built this Hawker Typhoon... with my mind!" Multi-tasking is a skill that I have always envied immensely but there is no chance of my working from home* so I have never got the chance to expand in that direction... Cheers, Stew * Mostly because my employers have always seen the lazy, shiftless, untrustworthy air I carry about me and decided immediately that if given the opportunity to work from home I would clearly spend the entire day stretched out on the sofa alternately stuffing my face and napping, for which perspicacity I can only commend them. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Nice progress PC - those seams are coming along nicely My business is based at home so 'working from home' has been my life for a few years. The secret for me is to partition the day and be disciplined. My day now is partitioned into getting up, checking BM, doing some work and then doing some modelling. And then doing a bit more work. And then a bit more modelling. And then checking BM. And then a bit more work / modelling. It just takes a certain kind of discipline... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Ah, "hardly" working from home I see. Been there, doing that one day every week since a few years back:-) The joy of modern technology... Seamless work on the seams it seems! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Excellent time management PC. The rear coaming looks great, I really like the details you added there. Is there a Tempest in the future? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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