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1/72 Pavla/Octopus Seafire Mk III with Skyfarer Intrusions


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Hello Benedikt, I have been busy with other things (re-reading the entire main Dune sequence, and Jane Austen's completed works minus Susan, practising, firefighting courses and tests, etc.). The Seafire has languished after carelees assembly- and handling-damage to the head armour plate and F11 (PU resin is very fragile, particularly after having had holes drilled in it). Said damage is proving rather intractable to fix, and I've given up after each attempt to sit down and think it through. 

 

An extended break reading has been essential to keep me from going completely around the bend. A break from captioning and uploading snaps has and preparing posts been necessary as well.

 

I've kept away from the rest of the forum so as not to get attacks of envy. I'll be back when I have something to show - but don't hold your breath!

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: <-- has been having a well-earned break.

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A good spell of reading is a good thing for  soothing the noggin Alex :).

 

We may get a little reprise from the high risk of fire now as the seasons change. On a different tack, I see a cyclone is to hit northern QLD. 'Debbie'. Who calls a cyclone 'Debbie' :o??

 

I guess it will be preceded by a Tsunami called 'Shane'.

 

If and when you feel like a bit of muddling again, it might be good to put the Seafire on hold and try a quick mojo building build. E.G. One of your recent Airfix purchases. A good quick kitbash. I'm hoping it works, trying it myself at the moment. Scribing may stumble me.....

 

Meanwhile I have some spare Spitfire interior bits in case you might need them for the Seafire. They're not Pavla (Italeri) but might be useful.

 

All the best

TonyT

 

 

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Likewise glad to hear that you're ok Alex: the reading break sounds like an excellent antidote to other concerns. Sometimes a bout of mental voyaging can be as re-energizing as an actual physical holiday in my experience.

 

Best wishes,

Tony

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bonjour, tout le monde... Thank you all for your very kind comments, likes, etc, etc.

 

Well, I'm back. A bit. I trust that you all had a Happy Easter or what ever. It has been so long since I have made any bulletin-board post anywhere that I hafind that I have forgotten my usual editing sequence. Back into the swing o' things now, though.

 

Here is the final stint before my 'factory reset':

 

1. Seafire head armour plate 'bolts and nuts', ready for installing:

 

34110226005_dd9b64ce13_b.jpg

Seafire head armour plate &#x27;bolts and nuts&#x27; by Alex1N, on Flickr 34110226005_dd9b64ce13_b.jpg

 

 

 

2. Raw 'bolts and nuts' test-fitted
 

33979923451_31191f554f_b.jpg

Raw &#x27;bolts and nuts&#x27; &#x27;glued&#x27; in place by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

3. 'Nuts' after sanding flat on diamond honing plate; diamond plate in background. So far, so good...

 

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&#x27;Nuts&#x27; after sanding flat on diamond plate by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

4. Closer-up view of the diamond plate

 

34069414196_6e811a48f9_b.jpg

Closer-up view of the diamond plate by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

5. Flat 'nuts', after filing flatter

 

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Flat 'nuts', after filing flatter by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

6. Another view of the head armour plate; cleaned up a bit this time

 

33725348130_6a718b3abb_b.jpg

Another view of the head armour plate by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

7. F11 from the rear showing armour plate 'bolts'. My apologies for the appalling lack of focus

 

33980048011_432965658a_b.jpg

F11 from the rear showing armour plate &#x27;bolts&#x27; by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

8. Setting up to glue the head armour in place in F11

 

34069513476_d845c82cea_b.jpg

Setting up to glue head armour in place by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

9. Another view of the armour plate spacer 'jig'

 

34110426185_b4bf6c98b8_b.jpg

Another view of the armour plate spacer &#x27;jig&#x27; by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

10. Head armour plate glued in place; the spacer was removed before glueing

 

33980136131_91eb8a02f4_b.jpg

Head armour plate glued in place by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

11. Glued head armour plate viewed from the rear. You can see here that the bottom starboard bolt isn't back flush with the aft face of F11. Oops...

 

33725480130_a0b0e7fb8a_b.jpg

Glued head armour plate viewed from the rear by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

12. Spurious cable replaced. A short length of 0.8 mm wire from a twisted-pair ethernet cable, with suitable bends and kinks. Since removed...

 

33980195951_fabcf91580_b.jpg

Spurious cable replaced by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

13. 'Bolts' in position prior to cutting and filing to final length. Note that high-sitting 'nut, bottom starboard plate corner. I wish that I had noticed that earlier!

 

34069640696_b52b88ef1d_b.jpg

&#x27;Bolts&#x27; in position prior to cutting and filing to final length by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

14. Aargh! The corner broke off the armour plate when removing the mis-glued 'bolt'. And F11 has cracked again (and in two places to boot). Oh dear, oh dear :(

 

33953405192_29891f80fe_b.jpg

Aargh! The corner broke off the armour plate when removing the mis-glued &#x27;bolt&#x27; by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

15. Broken F11. Bother. The cable has been removed here to allow F11 to sit flat in its special baked-FIMO rest/nest

 

33985468281_798f1b064f_b.jpg

Broken F11 by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

16. Eduard Spitfire Mk IX gyro sight- seek-and-ye-shall-find sort o' thing. Logic, in fact: since the eduard kit has just about everything including the kitchen sink for a late version Spitfire Mk IX, it should surely, therefore, have had a late-war gyro gunsight. This was indeed the case, after viewing the tansparencies frame:

 

33979838711_b38e936955_b.jpg

Eduard Spitfire Mk IX gyro sight by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

17. Eduard Spitfire Mk IX gyro sight again: I was very pleased to find this, since a number of photos of the BPF Seafires prior to their trip to Japanese waters have these sights. This is going straight into the Seafire without any copying malarky whatsoever

 

34069279616_3aa4191129_b.jpg

Eduard Spitfire Mk IX gyro sight again by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

Follow this link to my flickr account, and to my Seafire flickr album...

 

 

You can possibly see why I decided to have an extended break. I have done some tentative replacing of things after glueing up F11 and re-drilling another 'bolt' hole. More of that in a future post. As I say, I'm back, but only sort of, so don't expect a flood of new posts here or elsewhere. I think that parts of the forum had had enough of me previously, so I am now being a lot more cautious - and parsimonious - with comments, this lengthy catch-up post notwithstanding.

 

Flickr recently released an update for their iOS app, which hints at "exciting things to come" (to quoite their hyperbolic blurb). I won't hold my breath, but one could sanguinely hope that this might mean changes to their flamin' not-scrollable text fields. Probably not though - most likely some useless 'social medium' 'enhancements' that the world could well do without.

 

So what have I been up to over the last couple of months, apart from practising, reading, doing firefighting courses and so forth? Well, weeding out all the creeping oxalis that has ben coming up in the new herb bed, and finally getting on with the tedious and difficult process of constructing the base for my fuselage building jig. 'Tis done, and looks quite good, although the worst of the job - scribing and inking in the grid - was really in the end merely cosmetic - apart from the critical centre line (which, I and happy to say, is straight). At least the grid squares are just that: square. I have been sorting out the strangely twisted Skyfarer fuselage now that I have some reasonably accurate means of clamping it to a reference line, and on a flat, stable base. And have glued F4 in place (again), using epoxy followed by epoxy glue fillets (seeing as how it's the TE seat).

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: has been grazing safely, you will be glad to hear

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you all for your kind words (and very economical, Fritag).

 

While not very recent, here is the latest snap of the Seafire. Nothing more has been done on it since.

 

1. New head armour 'nut and bolt' for Seafire

 

34544191696_531889aee8_b.jpg

New head armour 'nut and bolt' for seafire by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

Whilst handling the item the other day after glueing the new bolt in place, it dawned on me that the 'glued-too-high' bolt was not glued too high at all - it in fact had not been glued sufficiently and was in the process of falling out. All I had to do was push it back down again gently and re-apply the glue. It must have fallen out when I wasn't looking and it took me this long to realise it. what a waste of time, effort and breakages. You can see why I have taken a prolonged break.

 

The Skyfarer, on the other hand, is coming along very nicely, if somewhat slowly. I have, however, come down with a nasty cold and not been feeling very much like doing anything.

 

Don't expect an update any time soon.

 

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention, I acquired the new Airfix 1/72 Handley Page Victor kit a couple  of months ago, to help cheer myself up at an exceedingly point. It's a fantastic-looking kit, and there appear to be some 'parts not for use' that will allow (perhaps with extra not-included parts) for an earlier version or so. And yes, the kit did in fact cheer me up considerably. Made in the UK too, much to my complete astonishment!

 

Cheers,

Alex.

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Having accidentally destroyed the little SONY camera's autofocus mechanism by knocking it off the extra-slippery fuselage alignment jig while working on the Skyfarer the other day :rant::badmood: , I finally bit the bullet and attacked the Canon SX1 with a screwdriver, xylene, contact cleaner and IPA. After pulling the SONY apart (and not being able to fix it), I decided that I had nothing to lose by dismantling the Canon.

 

Sure enough, the problem with the Canon's macro function switch not working was marine varnish, wicked up into the controls during a brush-tin spillage (also caused by knocking sometihing over on a slippery bench surface), where it solidified into a nice non-conductive film.

 

That cleaned up, the macro functions now works - as does the rest of the camera, and no parts left over...

 

The little SONY was actually a better macro snapper than the Canon, once I had worked out its idiosyncracies (i.e., I learned how to use it), since the Canon's long snout creates a shadow when using flash. Which is a problem for tiny 1/72 scale parts - I'll switch to colour sesitivity over to fluoro and have done with it.

 

Latest acquistion: Italeri 1/48 C-130J Hercules, to replace the kit accidentally sold a few years ago. To be done up in 37 Squadron RAAF colours. We got buzzed by one of a pair of their a/c from Richmond the other day, right over the house and minumum allowable height above terrain, what a racket :). Didn't take them long to vanish as they were going at quite a clip: not doing their usual circuits and bumps over Richmond and Windsor, for once. This an occasional occurrence, usually about two or three times a year. Said overflight reminded me that I had inadvertently flogged the kit, along with an Academy 1/48 RAAF F-111 (and Eduard Royal boxing RAAF(?) and others) Mirage a bit later). Oops.

 

This kit version has the current scimitar-shaped six-blade props. I'll have to snuffle out an appropriate after-market markings set, of course.

 

Nothing further on the Seafire - of course. I did clean up my little fine-grade diamond lap plate this morning, for future filing of the microscopic brass bits 'recently'1 replaced in F11. The Skyfarer is so much more fun, even with he camera-wrecking episode (you can see why The Boss won't let the new Olympus anywhere nrear the shed).

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: <- "nibble nibble nibble"

 

1 For a given value of 'recent'

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I was going to quote you both all - but the latest forum update and Safari don't appear to get on (welll, what a surprise, and a nice welcome back from the forum, I'm packing my bags already).

 

So.

 

@  The Baron: Cleaning cameras at any rate. I decided to have another go at the poor little SONY - sadly, it's really stuffed. The cost of an out-of-production spare part is going to be likely to be more than the cost of a new similar camera. A pdf of the service manual for the Canon SX1 was going to cost €74-odd, blow that for a game o' soldiers.

 

@ keefr2: haha, yes: at least it's not 1/24. Or 1/10... A rather craven Sheep says a somewhat nervous "Hello" to T-rex.

 

@ Rob85: You are too kind. Spitfire firewalls in 1/72(?)? Blinkin' 'eck, mate! I will be having nightmares about that, now!

 

Which brings me to the main reason for this postette: I did in fact scrub away at the latest piece of brass tubing this arvo, so it's nice and flat now - at the front, at any rate. The back will need some attention, but the front was already quite enough for one day. I'll post the best snap once I've worked out which camera it's on... I have been pondering, off and on, the installation of F11, which is possibly the main reason for my current cowardice. I dare say that if it all goes completely pear-shaped, I can have the cathartic pleasure of taking to it with a 2 kg lump hammer (of which I have two).

 

The C-130 is supposedly arriving tomorrow, which should be amusing.

 

As an completely irrelevant aside, my herb garden - and part of the lawn - has been overgrown by self-sown tomatoes 🍅, courtesy of the father-in-law's compost heap. Pity it's so late in the season, as most of the tomatoes won't ripen, I suspect.

 

Also, I have a lot of catching up to do on various threads...

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: says "Hello" again to T-rex (with a request that he not be eaten, please)

 

 

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6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Great to see you back Alex - and fixing cameras now to boot! :thumbsup2:

Tony

 

2 hours ago, keefr22 said:

A 1/72 Seafire to a 1/48 Hercules is rather a gargantuan leap in size Alex....!! :yikes:

 

Keith

 

:dinosaur:wants to say hi to sheepie! 

 

33 minutes ago, rob85 said:

That a lot of nice work going into the interior Alex, definitely makes me feel better about tackling the fire wall on my spitfire!

 

Rob

 

Ah, so the forum and the ipad are making a mockery of me by suddenly allowing me to multi-quote. Joke's on me, I suppose. See previous post for my replies. (Stupid predictions ctive text booby trap to be turned off again next, see preceding. One of the best bits of my little holiday was not having anything to do with typing in Safari on the pad,)

 

A.

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I have found to my fury that in the glueing og the small brass piece that it got clogged with CA. This showed up when I tired to insert the actual 'bolt' through the 'hole'. It's rather odd, because I used one of Radu B's delicate CA applicators and a very small amount o' glue - and I was being very careful. Maybe the glue got in when I was gluing the larger ring on.

 

There are three options:

 

drill it out;

 

gradually remove the glue with a piece of rod and capillaried CA;

 

replace the part.

 

I don't have a small enough drill bit, and the CA method as above will take months, so it looks like replacing the part. Botheration! Needless to say it's back off the stove while I do easy visible things on the Skyfarer.

 

regarding building an RAAF Hercules, it turms out that the RAAF uses the stretched C-130J-30, what is an extra 4.6 m longer in real life. The extending (constant diameter, at least) sections are fore and aft of the wing. A trip to the RAAF Richmond perimeter fence with the camera coming up, I think. Or a visit to airliners.net and related. There is a markings set for the current RAAF Herc livery, but I don't know if it's still available. Stretching the fuselage will also mean stretching the internal detail that Italeri kindly supplies, too. It just gets better and better.

 

I could, of course, build an RAF bird right out of the box, but that would be cheating.

 

And in any case, I stll have this little monster to deal with, yet...

 

Speaking o' Little Monsters:

 

 

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: <-- not a little monster ;)

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Hi Alex,

 

Good to see you're still beavering away at the Seafire.  

 

The main reason the Seafires were used for Fleet CAP was due to their short range and also because of their climb to height speed which was rated as butter than the Corsair (though most figures I've seen refute this).  It was not until long range tanks came into play that this was addressed which is odd as they do seem to have been available.

 

A couple of things I have noticed on livery is that Implacable & Indefatigable Seafires had different marking placements in mid-late '45.

 

HMS Indefatigable with NAS 887 & 894.  887 & 894 wore S on the tail and the aircraft number 1xx on the tail below it.  They would have been using the standard slipper tank to extend range.  Spud Murphy was in NAS 887 for the final air raid on the Home Islands.

 

HMS Implacable joined the BPF in June '45 with NAS801 & 880.  801 & 880 Seafires had the N on the tail and the Aircraft number 1xx on the fuselage around the roundel and bar.  Implacable Seafires had the P40 tanks.  

 

In photographs of the Seafires on the decks of the carriers there appears to be different Spinner colours across the aeroplanes, I would guess that this is to indicate the different squadrons but I don't know either the colours or the aircraft number allocation to each squadron.  

 

If anyone knows please share the information as it's been driving me nuts.  If you have the aircraft number / serial number information I would whoop for joy (I have some for Indefatigable but not all).

 

Lastly, I think the aircraft got "borrowed" by the other squadron, so 894 pilots flew 880 allocated aircraft and visa versa depending on operational need... 

 

Hope this helps...

 

 

Edited by Grey Beema
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I've finally caught up with your thread Alex :).

 

It was all going so we'll until that tiny break :undecided:.

 

I know that you want to get it really 'right'; which is great. Nevertheless, for the sake of the old mojo, if you were to just, sort of, wallop the thing in the fuselage, once the canopy is on, I don't think you could tell.

 

A  few weeks ago I did a little detailing on a 1/73 Tamiya Spitfire interior (very little..). I'd seen Simon (Beard) write elsewhere, how little can be seen in 1/72 Spitfires when the canopy is on. It's completely true. The Tamiya canopy glass isn't as 'fisheye' as some can be; yet still, very little can be seen.

 

Just a thought.

 

Its got nothing to do with a selfish voyeuristic desire to see the Seafire fuselage closed up. At all :whistle: .

 

The Hercules sounds pretty wonderful. It will be ridiculously huge in 1/48. Extending the fuselage sounds scary. 

 

As for the rampant tomatoes; are there any green ones there? My grandfather, if there were any unripe ones left at the end of the season, had a solution involving a drawer (in a chest of drawers, in my bedroom) lined with newspaper. He would put them in there green, and I think they slowly ripened. Maybe. They rolled around in there in the dark as I laid on the iron framed bed anyway. For some reason.

 

He would also fry green ones (breakfast; bacon, eggs etc), thinly sliced, and they tasted fine :chef:.

 

Happy Skyfaring

TonyT

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On 25/05/2017 at 16:59, Grey Beema said:

Hi Alex,

 

Good to see you're still beavering away at the Seafire.  

 

The main reason the Seafires were used for Fleet CAP was due to their short range and also because of their climb to height speed which was rated as butter than the Corsair (though most figures I've seen refute this).  It was not until long range tanks came into play that this was addressed which is odd as they do seem to have been available.

 

A couple of things I have noticed on livery is that Implacable & Indefatigable Seafires had different marking placements in mid-late '45.

 

HMS Indefatigable with NAS 887 & 894.  887 & 894 wore S on the tail and the aircraft number 1xx on the tail below it.  They would have been using the standard slipper tank to extend range.  Spud Murphy was in NAS 887 for the final air raid on the Home Islands.

 

HMS Implacable joined the BPF in June '45 with NAS801 & 880.  801 & 880 Seafires had the N on the tail and the Aircraft number 1xx on the fuselage around the roundel and bar.  Implacable Seafires had the P40 tanks.  

 

In photographs of the Seafires on the decks of the carriers there appears to be different Spinner colours across the aeroplanes, I would guess that this is to indicate the different squadrons but I don't know either the colours or the aircraft number allocation to each squadron.  

 

If anyone knows please share the information as it's been driving me nuts.  If you have the aircraft number / serial number information I would whoop for joy (I have some for Indefatigable but not all).

 

Lastly, I think the aircraft got "borrowed" by the other squadron, so 894 pilots flew 880 allocated aircraft and visa versa depending on operational need... 

 

Hope this helps...

 

 

 

 

Hello Grey,

 

Thank you very much for the information, particularly about spinner colours - like you, the info that I have (including, now, the David Brown book, in hardcover!) is almost entirely in black and white.I think that I'm doing a plane from Indefatigable, NN212, S112 (white spinner - or is it?) of 887 NAS, airframe built by Westland between April and August 1944 (according to the brown book). No sign of a slipper tank on this one, but I will trawl through the book again. The http://www.armouredcarriers.com site goes into the numbering of the seafires, but I can't remember off hand where in its labyrinthine structure I saw it.

 

Apparently the P-40 tanks were sourced from an RAAF squadron, in exchange for a case of whisky... That little gem came from the aforementioned armouredcarries.com site, and which in turn no doubt came from one of the books used in the construction of the site.

 

On 25/05/2017 at 20:45, TonyTiger66 said:

I've finally caught up with your thread Alex :).

 

It was all going so we'll until that tiny break :undecided:.

 

I know that you want to get it really 'right'; which is great. Nevertheless, for the sake of the old mojo, if you were to just, sort of, wallop the thing in the fuselage, once the canopy is on, I don't think you could tell.

 

A  few weeks ago I did a little detailing on a 1/73 Tamiya Spitfire interior (very little..). I'd seen Simon (Beard) write elsewhere, how little can be seen in 1/72 Spitfires when the canopy is on. It's completely true. The Tamiya canopy glass isn't as 'fisheye' as some can be; yet still, very little can be seen.

 

Just a thought.

 

Its got nothing to do with a selfish voyeuristic desire to see the Seafire fuselage closed up. At all :whistle: .

 

The Hercules sounds pretty wonderful. It will be ridiculously huge in 1/48. Extending the fuselage sounds scary. 

 

As for the rampant tomatoes; are there any green ones there? My grandfather, if there were any unripe ones left at the end of the season, had a solution involving a drawer (in a chest of drawers, in my bedroom) lined with newspaper. He would put them in there green, and I think they slowly ripened. Maybe. They rolled around in there in the dark as I laid on the iron framed bed anyway. For some reason.

 

He would also fry green ones (breakfast; bacon, eggs etc), thinly sliced, and they tasted fine :chef:.

 

Happy Skyfaring

TonyT

 

Hello Tony,

 

Regarding the canopy, visibility, &c., the Pavla one is quite a thin vac-formed one and pretty clear, i.e., no fisheye-ing at all, added to which, I am going to be modelling the Seafire with the canopy pulled back and the cockpit door open (Pavla very sensibly provide two complete canopies, both 'closed'). That means that almost everything will can be seen will be seen, if you see what I mean.

 

I must take a snap or two of the tomato plant, it is rather creepy (and creeping). Interesting tomato recipes, I might try them since we have bucket loads of the unripe green ones.

 

According to my calculator, the Herc kit will have a wingspan of 841.875 mm... That's if the kit span is exactly 41.4 metres/48, I get the wings built exactly straight, etc. Full-size wingspan from the Wikipedia article, the Wikipedia being always right and never wrong. Um.

 

I was over at Richmond this morning, so took the opportunity of driving past the RAAF base to look at the Herculeses: there were about six parked out on the tarmac enjoying the morning sunshine. Paint was very flat indeed, looked as though it was drinking in the light (which is the intention, of course). Very non-specular. As a result looked quite dark.

 

I may even start this after the Seafire: I need something to motivate me to getting it done. I was working on F11 yesterday, poking the brass tube with a sharp pin: F11 snapped again, of course. Talk about stuck in a feedback loop of disintegration: Maybe I'll do a diorama of it nose down, prop blades missing, stuck in the barrier - the default position on landing for many of the early Seafires (and quite a few of the later ones, too), according to what I have read. That way I colud get away with damaged cockpit parts and hopefully no-one would notice. The various bits that I have read also say that the Seafire wasn't quite as accident-prone as it has been made out to be, but there were a lot of snap-happy photographers on board the carriers at the wrong moments.

 

Anyway, that's enough for the moment, I sense a page flip coming soon too.

 

Cheers,
Alex. :sheep: <-- safely grazing

 

Edited by AlexN
Splelign nad tpsyo
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Rightio.

 

Some recent snaps, some relevant, some botg so (at this stage at any rate). A few of the imnages show me playing about with the iPhone's 'square format' option. Hey kids, I've got a Rolleiflex/Hasselblad/etc. Well, I do have a Rolleiflex 'medium-format' TLR camera, as it turns out, but it is of course a film <gasp> camera (wassat?)...

 

1. Seafire F11 with new 'nut and bolt'. after filing, So far so good, except that it isn't, of course...

 

34914830345_f9f8aaf55b_b.jpg

Seafire F11 with new 'nut and bolt' after filing by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

2. Aft side of F11, new 'bolt' filed

 

34914964415_f50e86b015_b.jpg

Aft side of F11, new 'bolt' filed by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

3. F11 with armour plate corner replacement: over-handling at some point knocked off the rather fragile corner. That'll be fun to add, won't it, kids?

 

34751430572_542bc23f9c_b.jpg

F11 with armour plate corner replacement by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

Right. That's enough of the relevant 'contractual obligation' snaps; here's the interesting stuff:

 

4. New Tamiya paint stand. I was acquiring some Plastruct plastic tube for the Skyfarer's windscreen support frames (for around $6) at an almost-local railways modelling shop when I saw this (for $32) and couldn't resist it. It goes round and round like anything. Note the new inhabitants

 

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New Tamiya paint stand by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

5. As seen before (many times, no doubt) here on BM: Gunze Sangyo jar opener set; rear side of product card - complete with 'duck with mullet hairdo' (according to our daughter, who is used to interpreting such things (and can even read the card)...


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Gunze Sangyo jar opener set by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

6. Gunze Sangyo jar opener set; front side of the product card

 

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Gunze Sangyo jar opener set by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

7. Scottish shortbread (bit of a tautology there) as made by my daughter for the end of term 'food from around the world' party for one of her uni courses. I was even allowed a piece, and am trying to persuade her to make some more. I'm not really trying to emulate Mr Heath - it happened to be the next photo in sequence from the GSI-Creos Jar opener, and I thought that it looked nice

 

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Scottish shortbread by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

Follow this link to my flickr account, and my Seafire flickr album...

 

That feels a bit better, posting some actual snaps for a change. I have decided to acquire a drill set with an 0.2 mm bit in it, since extracting and replacing the new 'nut and bolt' is far too fraught wi' danger. It will take a while to get here, but that really makes no difference in the overall scheme of things save that it might actually speed things up (another <gasp>).

 

I'm now up-to-date with such Seafire snaps as can be inflicted upon you all; I have a massive backlog of Skyfarer snaps which was holding things up because I was letting it, but after realising the silliness therein, I decided to cut to the chase and fix up the Seafire thread. I am actually sorry that I don't have anything new to add, just the same old same old - round and round in circles, The Skyfarer thread can continue to wait upon my leisure.

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: <-- told me to get the drill bit set ; )

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I'm out of likes again Alex. Very early in the day.

 

I've been walloping them all over Mr. Baron's satellite recovery thread and Mr. Heath's Bristol Sycamore thread. All that soldering has me intrigued; mainly because I'm thoroughly useless at soldering :confused: .

 

I hope the 0.2mm drill is a good solid one; I know you'll have shopped for good tools :).

 

At first, I didn't think about it and bought some cheap micro-drills from China (fleabay). Broke almost immediately; in nothing more than 1/72 Bf 109 B (Avis brand) tailplane plastic.

 

I shopped a little more and found packs of German made ones at varying prices. The cheap(ish) packs by 'Heller' are, I have found, if handled with care, a lot stronger than the Chinese gibber:

 

http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/121132624325?_mwBanner=1

 

Your observation of the Hercules sounds like a very nice and inspiring outing; it would be great to see a build :thumbsup2: .

 

Regarding the not quite like H.G. Wells crawling 'red weed' tomatos, this recipe is quite similar to my grandfather's, although I'm pretty sure he used a little full cream milk in the coating, and fried in sunflower oil. 

 

He wasn't American, his parents were French  (but he was born in England), so  I have no idea how or where he got the recipe.

 

Maybe wartime knowledge sharing or just a bit of experimentation. He cut them a little thinner than in this recipe; I think thicker would actually be more healthy (and tasty):

 

http://www.farmflavor.com/recipe/type/appetizers/fried-green-tomatoes-flour/

 

If you've got a lot, I bet you can perfect this recipe :D:chef: .

 

Best regards

TonyT

 

PS: That shortbread!! Droo! :Tasty:!!

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Hello Tony,

 

Thank you for your kind words - and the links! The drill set that I was going to get was a $12 one from BNAModelWorld, but your FleaBay link has given me pause for thought. Not necessarily aus FleaBay, but from some more reputable source closer to home. RS Australia, from whom I've acquired a lot of stuff for my languishing (now there's a surprise!) CNC box have this 0.2 mm bit - at $26 before tax (free shipping). That's in line with what RS usually charges, but of course they don't sell rubbish. If the drill bit were for my CNC box, then I would have no hesitation, but for one hole in one model...hmmm...

 

I know that it isn't just 'one hole in one model', since I'm sure that it would have other uses, just not immediate ones (er...since when has that ever stopped me?...). Bother. I had conveniently forgotten my 'no such thing as a cheap tool' phrase. I am going to have to ponder this over the weekend. "That reminds me of a song":

 

 

I keep forgetting to take snaps of the creepy creeping tomato lizard, must try again tomorrow. The recipe looks so simple that even I could cook it, methinks.

 

I suspect that if I want more of that shortbread, I will have to do it myself. Getting the recipe from my daughter may be another sticking point. I dare say that I will have to consider it as one of those rare but transient, never-to-be-repeated pleasures.

 

Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: <-- Sheep has been given the task on pondering the drill bit question too

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Mullets and shortbread at breakfast time here make for a great start to the day. Thanks Alex!

 

Them fittings on the Seafire are looking very much the business at this stage.

Tony

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Thank you, your Baronship :). Only to happy to oblige. We had a nice goat's cheese and chard quiche served up to us by the daughter last night, my apologies for no snaps, but we ate it all up far too quickly ;).

 

I have more-or-less decided to go for the RS Oz drill bit, since it is a Dormer bit: many of my metal-working taps and dies are Dormer tools, and I have come to rely on them for their quality. The local Sutton taps, dies and drill bits are very good too. They also calim same-day shipping, so I may get the thing on Tuesday if I order it tomorrow. Which I should, since they are in Sydney and I can get stuff from Melbourne or Adelaide the next day (as long as I pay for it ;).


I will no doubt post a snap of it here once I get it. Speaking of acquisitions, I also got a couple of packets of Evergreen plastic card when I got the Victor and the GSI jar opener set several months ago: clear 0.25 mm and white 0.13 mm thicknesses. The white one would have been perfect for making the head armour plate with, but I had already made several from thicker card sanded thinner by the time that I got around to ordering the thin stuff.

 

In other news, I have tidied up the father-in-law's garage and made a space for building the 20-foot 'Sooty Tern' Scottish yawl (or yowl) in, the progress on wich will be able to be seen here once I get afound to starting on that major project. Things like the Seafire and the Skyfarer will have to be completed before I do that, as well as some other things associated with getting the garage in safe order. I have made an outline of the boat on butcher's paper (24 or so sheets stuck together with a 'UHU' glue stick to make sure that there will be enough comfortable space for building it in - and also to ensure that I will be able to get it out the door once built. I have, of course got a Flickr album dedicated to that, too, which as yet only has snaps of the butcher's paper outline in the nice clear shed in it so far.

 

I don't have too many projects on the go at all, at all.

 

Cheers,
Alex. :sheep: <-- not a Sooty Tern

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