AdrianMF

Ah, you have a giant tin of paint AND a giant penny! Adrian

It might be of interest that just a few months along from the Wallace to Wapiti conversion, Meccano Magazine also carried an article on converting the Atlantic Vimy to the military version in the November 1966 issue. Although I suspect it's nowadays harder to lay hands on the original Atlantic version than the later modified military version, given all the Frogspawn military ones. From what little I've seen, the Meccano Magazine conversions seem to be less "hardcore" than the Alan W Hall ones in the Airfix Magazine. Regards, Adrian

Looks great! The video shows it off well. Regards, Adrian

It's nice when that happens! I use Revell Decalsoft to get them to settle and resist the urge to poke until it's absolutely dry. Looking very sharp in the overall grey. Regards, Adrian

Genius on the canopy! That kit has never looked better, I'll bet. Regards, Adrian

Superb work on a reputedly tough kit. The paintwork brings it out nicely too - love the hi-vis aerials! Regards, Adrian

Nice rendition of the colour scheme - really sharp and crisp. Regards, Adrian

The Seasprite looks fab (as does the Mini). You have managed to disassemble and renew it very cleanly. Obviously your 1:1 scale experience is coming in handy! Regards, Adrian

The Olfa compass cutter is cheap and does the job* but won't cut circles of less than 10mm diameter. There is a "Dspiae" circle cutter that is reputed to be far superior and definitely costs a lot more, moving it into punch and die territory** for me***. Meanwhile, cockpit: * it has a blade but you get better results if you turn in the opposite direction and use the blade as a scriber. Crazy but true! ** "How much? You're joking! No thanks". If I want holes, I've got drills. If I want circles, I've got slices of plastic rod. *** actually it's 20 quid, less than I remembered (vs ~10 for the Olfa). And my birthday is coming up...

Cowlings are done: After setting overnight, the knifing putty sanded down to a good smooth finish. TBH it isn't any better than my existing Tamiya putty and I should have used P38 or Milliput for this particular job, but it will get used because it's in the arsenal now.

Looking forward to this one. When I built it I ended up replacing all the struts but I think it was an Adrian problem not a kit problem! Regards, Adrian

Just so you know what I'm letting myself in for... The FROG Magister matches the plans in the Harborough book of Miles aircraft perfectly. So I am assuming that any differences between the plans of the types that I am making and the Magister parts are "real" and not errors in the plans. Here's the Hawk Major: And here's the Sparrowhawk: So, changes look like: Shorter cowling Different exhaust Faired and tailskid undercarriage Different or single cockpit openings Different windscreens Shorter more tapered tail Lower tailplane Possibly smaller tailplane - clean up the flash first before deciding Different fin and rudder Shorter wingspan on Sparrowhawk - no centre section Ailerons to wingtip The schemes I am targeting (ZK-ADJ and G-ADNL) have black or maroon lettering on overall silver or cream, so both can be done with home-printed decals. Regards, Adrian

Lovely build and the camouflage looks wonderful after your revision. Regards, Adrian

Stop press: I was having a rummage around the box while packing everything away and found this (the white piece): Apparently, Past Adrian* decided to give his Future Adrian a nice surprise by making the front decking, and Current Adrian is both surprised and grateful, 'cos he can't remember making it! That will save me a load of faffing about tomorrow and it's cheered me up about today too Regards, Adrian * Terminology courtesy of @Procopius

The Baltimore cowlings are two piece. I stuck them together long before the GB started (don't tell tell the mods!). I think a lot of kit manufacturers, even "good" ones, simply have trouble producing good radial engine cowlings right up to this day. And in all fairness it's a difficult balance of accuracy, mould considerations and buildability in this area. Regards, Adrian

The wheel wells are now boxed in: Considering I had already got a cardboard template already worked out, it's taken an unconscionable amount of time. And the cowlings still don't pass the fingernail test! Nonetheless, I have gingerly sanded one of them a bit, and I think (when they are fully set!) that they will turn out much better than the original FROG ones:: I keep doing this with Milliput, deciding not to use it because if the three hour setting time, and then regretting my choice. If I had just used it this morning I would have been looking at finished cowlings a long time ago. And when they say thin layers for knifing putty, they must mean very thin. Not my most interesting modelling day ever today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Dry in 20-30 minutes. Ha ha hahahaha no. Still showing thumbnail impressions after three hours - should have used two part filler. The time hasn't been wasted though. I've started on detailing the interior: I'm making it all removable because I'll be doing a lot of work on the fuselage to restore the decking in front of the cockpit and make a master for the new vac form canopy.

Hungry now. Can't think why...

Just wondering if you keep adding small amounts of future at a time to the hole area whether that might level it out eventually? Regards, Adrian

It will be nice to do a couple of civil aircraft for a change. Regards, Adrian

I've been inspired by a @CliffB build in the Frog Squad II GB to convert the FROG Magister kit into two related aircraft: the Hawk Major (from which the Magister was derived); and the Sparrowhawk (a cut down version of the Hawk for racing). So I'm starting from here: This one came bagged with no decals, the other one is a Novo baggie in grey plastic. Both at £4.20 each - cheap modelling ahead! As I have three, possibly four, builds to shift in the Frog Squad II and WWII Twins GBs (and I've got a Blitzbuild candidate already lined up too), this is just a placeholder for now. Regards, Adrian

Well the cowlings set overnight and didn't stick to the jig, so I have popped them out. I'm trying out knifing putty, another automotive product, arrived in the post yesterday. It's quite strong smelling and it's meant to dry in 30 minutes: We will see how that goes. I may have applied it a bit thick but the layer is definitely less than 3mm.

Great choice. Although obviously you are going to need a Junkers G.38 to go with it ... Regards, Adrian

That set of decals was great! I used the inter-war 72 Squadron ones on the new Airfix Gladiator and they worked a treat.

Looks very sharp - good use of the window fragments! I'd echo Steve's comments about black. It turns the blue very dark very quickly. Regards, Adrian