[Not my comfort zone GB (8 April - 30 July)]

14 hours ago, Marklo said:

Caproni C.60

I'm delighted to see you have embraced the principles of this GB so thoroughly. I may have to watch this one from behind the sofa!

And if you don't get around to final assembly you can always claim to be depicting it after its second landing .

 

Regards,

Adrian

[FROG 1/72 Ta152]

It just gets worse ... I found some plans online:

 

So, this printed copy is about 3% too small (will fix that tomorrow) but there's good news and bad news. 
 

Good:

- length and span agree with Wikipedia

- wing and tailplane shapes look good (wingtips need a brush with a sanding stick) (and wings look a bit thin?)

 

Bad:

- spinner is awful, may be able to sand it down

- propeller blades are moulded backwards! The front surfaces are concave and the back is convex. Hence all the "prop on backwards" warnings. It's just wrong either way round. Shape is off too!

- cowling and gills are very crude

- exhausts are blobby and wrong

- missing bulges in front of cockpit

- canopy is a too small

- tail fin doesn't match the plans

- under fuselage has extra slice below wing

- all the usual stuff in a fifty-five year old kit like raised panel lines, no detail, no interior, toy-like wheels.

 

Nothing too bad to fix (while asking yourself "why am I doing this?") so I will quit moaning and crack on!

 

[453rd BG Museum Build - USAAF Boulton Paul Defiant TT Mk I]

Gorgeous. With printed parts of that quality they look better than the kit!

 

3 hours ago, Fritag said:

existing lower hatch, slightly modified and minus the hatch cover

 

I'd be tempted to keep my belt on at all times in that case. although it probably required quite a lot of moving around to get the targets out.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Boundless Ambition: A-Model's 1/72 M-50 "Bounder" Supersonic Bomber]

Wow that B-58 is a beauty! NMF holds no terrors for you.

 

(Comparatively) small, but perfectly formed...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[The Valley Of The Vixens, where Avons love to tread.]

I'm not (intentionally) trying to be a jackass with the nose weight comment - if I look at the third picture in the undercarriage section here, I see the same bay, without the big slabs of stuff bolted to the walls. And the "stuff" looks like it might be pretty heavy.

 

[edit] or it could be dirty expanded foam of some sort?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[On Heather's Workbench - Strike Hard, Strike Sure: RAF Bomber Command 1940]

Super progress on this! I must say I'm struggling to see how the Valom kit is significantly better than the Airfix one...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns - Airfix 1/72 Bristol Beaufort Mk. I]

Looking good!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[FROG 1/72 Ta152]

Now look what you've made me do:

 

I've started to remove the fictitious slice of fuselage below the wing roots, made the wing inserts fit properly and tidied up the undercarriage bay, ready for a spar and some detail.

 

This doesn't feel like option "a"...

[Hasegawa 1/72 F-106]

Decals, varnish and weathering have been done, so it's a case of taking the aeroplane bits out of the box and sticking them on (no german armoured car crew though, thank you):

 

I've made up and painted some struts for the undercarriage doors and have to make some rams to open and close the missile bay doors too, and then we are done!

[FROG 1/72 Ta152]

59 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Have you still got this one in the diary ?

Frankly, I've been struggling between

a. Just build it

b. Go all AMS (there's plenty to fix and there may be some original plastic left)

c. Step away and get on with  my other GB builds and get ready for NMCZ GB hosting

I hadn't even opened the bag before this GB and it isn't a great kit, even by FROG standards. You may have publicly shamed me into taking option "a" with a strict time limit and filing the finished result in my "crappy Luftwaffe plane kits that looked kinda interesting but I shouldn't have even started" box (next to the Lindberg Me 410, for example).

 

The Jockney KUTA has worked its magic again! (dammit)

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[The Valley Of The Vixens, where Avons love to tread.]

4 hours ago, perdu said:

Aiming for something similar to but not necessarily identical to

It looks like they've bolted big lumps of nose weight all around the wheel well. Those Avons must be heavy at the back...

[1:72 AZ Model Nakajima Kikka]

Just did a catchup, PE and all. Splendid stuff Bill!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Boundless Ambition: A-Model's 1/72 M-50 "Bounder" Supersonic Bomber]

I'm worn out just from reading about the landing gear assembly! They do look good though.

 

That's more parts in just the gear than there are in most of the whole kits that I build.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[Eduard 1/48th J-35 Draken]

Going very nicely. I really like the dropped flaps (and flaperons?)

 

Regards,

Adrian

[1/48 Hasegawa S 35E recce Draken - Swedish Air Force]

The additional cockpit and wheel well detailing looks great. Looking forward to your faded camouflage!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[“Dassault on Precinct 13” Italeri Mirage 1/32]

The devil is in the detail indeed! Looking splendid Johnny.

 

And I hope Zero got some lunch too - not sure mushroom and cauliflower is his thing though.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[The Valley Of The Vixens, where Avons love to tread.]

11 hours ago, perdu said:

couple of ninety thou blanks

Ninety thou??? That's not card , that's a block! Marvellous hacking.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Hasegawa 1/72 F-106]

Good to hear, Steve!

 

Well, I only own three reds, so it's a stroke of luck that one of them is a perfect match for touching up the decals:

 

I'm hoping midnight blue works for the couple of insignia touch ups too. Then it's varnish, weathering and the small stuff...

 

[edit] A mix of midnight blue and black did the job...

[AdrianMF's 1/72 H2K (ex-Hasegawa) Draken]

On 25/03/2023 at 00:32, PattheCat said:

So was it enough to quench your usual thirst to fill and sand?

Bizarrely, having decided in my head that this is a "perfect kit", I now find myself mildly outraged when the slightest thing doesn't click together with Lego-like precision. Go figure...

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

[AdrianMF's 1/72 H2K (ex-Hasegawa) Draken]

I have had to fiddle around here to get a tight join without a step:

 

Step free and no gap, at last:

[Hasegawa 1/72 F-106]

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

out of circulation

Hope that's for all the right reasons...

[AdrianMF's 1/72 H2K (ex-Hasegawa) Draken]

Some micro-progress while the decals are drying on another project:

 

I have glued the top of the fin on and painted the exhaust section. The turbine/afterburner is a superb piece of moulding!

[Railway Miniatures 1/87 German Lighthouse: Lighthouses – helping to keep salty sea dogs out of the briny]

Terrific project! I've built a couple of small and simple paper project but this one is something else.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Hasegawa 1/72 F-106]

the second one was out to get me! Broke into eight pieces before it had even left the backing paper:

 

Managed to wrestle it back together though. I left it to soak in the warm water for a longer time - that may have been why it was more fragile.

 

Time for a cuppa while all that dries. I'm glad I didn't go for the open airbrake option now!

[Hasegawa 1/72 F-106]

Hasegawa does like a nice big (giant!) decal: