Grant

A cracking rendition! I like the aerial wires, adds that bit extra. cheers Grant

Rich - It is done! So it will be there on Saturday. I hope you like it. Kirk - The whole kit is just strange! Too narrow in places, like no room for side consoles in the cockpit, and jet efflux pitch and yaw control outlets missing, (which I finally twigged way to late to do anything about). As for the 'in-flight' option. The u/c is molded compressed, and way to difficult, at this scale, for me to mod. So it will be sat on the ground, motor running, just prior to t/o. The FlightDec decals instructions described the colour as roundel blue plus 25% black. Mine is Xtracolor #123 'Blue Angel Blue' and Revell #7 black, mixed 2:1. It is possibly a bit blue, but I was getting worried about the mix suddenly becoming just too dark, so I stopped mixing and started painting. 'finished' photos to follow, after the Plymouth show. cheers Grant

Well the painting went well. However, the decals being a pain. The backing/glue has aged and is coming off white. I have to rinse the decals off, once they are off the paper, but then they are going on fine with a bit of Klear. They are a bit thick, but a couple of coats of Klear seem help reduce that effect. Here is a top shot with all the upper decals on, and with the tips and controls surface sealing being painted. Why is white paint such an awful paint to use? And here with the masking tape removed. It is on it's u/c now, and still on track to appear at Plymouth on Saturday. cheers Grant

A bird I have yet to build! The mottled effect in that top shot looks very effective. Interesting split of jobs. Paint and decal tails before sticking them on. I wouldn't have thought of that myself. It is a function of the kit ,or the aircraft or is it Mish's top tip for Tomcats? cheers Grant

I have just done the intakes for an Airfix 1/72 Gr5. Sounds like a similar breakdown of parts. The 'closed' doors were a poor fit really and I wanted 'open' doors as my model is flaps down engine running ready to t/o! So I filed the doors off, then filed some more and stuck some thin plasticard in, to represent the doors open. The undercoat is drying at the moment and I have some in-progress shots in the camera. I'll sort them out and take some new ones bit latter and post up them for you. It looks like quite a plausible fix. If you want shut doors and the top ones drooped, maybe file off some material from the top ones and then use plasticard to raise all doors to the right height. No time like the present. Here are the piccies of my intake mod. Heavily filed rear section, with replacement plasticard on left. Original bad fitting parts on right. The revised intake in place, looking the part I think. cheers Grant

"War of the Worlds"! There was something weird in the back of my mind about it and that's what it was. It could be the full length effect, but I do like the idea of a nose up, climb out attitude. Luckily it is a decision that can wait 'till the very end. So, at my build rate, that will be plenty of time to think about it! cheers Grant

Looking good so far Mike. So long ago that I looked at my EH101 kits I can't remember what the details were that needed correcting, still I bet Dave (Merlin101) has a better more complete list than I do. I must get on and finish my 101 collection. My pet peeve with this kit is the lack of static vents on the stbd side. They molded them on the port side, so why not on the stbd aswell?!!!? Oh yeah, and don't paint the blades black. 101 blades have never been black. They should be green, with a metal leading edge. Looking forward to seeing this one completed. cheers Grant

Airfix kit with decals for the dark blue and white test scheme. Should look pretty when done. I had wanted to display it in the hover with the flaps drooped, then Paulo put up this excellent tutorial on how to get the flaps working. Been working on this for a few weeks now. Here is the progress so far. Then I started work on the flaps. Thanks Paulo, a terrific tutorial. That was a lot of effort on your part and it is greatly appreciated. Obviously the brass rod is there just while I check it all works. More discreet pins will replace it when I am ready to stick all the bits together. Now to get the port side working aswell! And finally; A hover display. How about 4 clear rods shoved into each exhaust to hold the aircraft up? The photo below has the full length rods in place as a test, but I reckon I will cut them down to about 3-4 inches. It seems pretty stable. I think it will work. Anybody got any comments? cheers Grant

So true! And this IS a good one. Grant

That is actually a cool idea. I might look into that. DVD's are definitely the other backup consideration, that I am slowly catching up with, 'cos whilst there is space to last until I am 80+, no way is the disc actually going to last that long! I fell a weekend of testing coming on. cheers Grant

Thank you folks, apart from Kirk who is just being silly! Some interesting ideas there. Some cheaper than others!! Tony, I am already using an external disc for backup, they are such a cheap backup solution nowadays. At 250Gb I reckon it will last me into my 80s. cheers Grant

Hi folks, Had my DSLR for a year now and really need to get organized with archiving photos etc. There seems to be a load of options out there, but for this sort of software I expect you really have to use it for a while before you know it is what you want. So I thought I would try a short cut. Anybody out there with time to comment on what they use and offer a newbie databaser some pearls of wisdom? TIA Grant

Tizzy/Mish - "not run of the mill" seems to be a good summary of my builds since returning to the hobby. It certainly helps with practicing lots of different techniques. Mike - I think the perceived finish is more down to the photography. Long way to go to match Jens Alclad finishes, but happy to practice! cheers Grant

Ta Gents. The metal foil on my Whittle is definitely a better BMF, but it appears to a gone a bit wrinkly over the last 3 months. I'll stick to practicing with Alclad, me thinks. cheers Grant

I used a hot air paint stripper to bend mine. Patience is required, as too much heat and all of a sudden it will bend rapidly and maybe produce some air bubbles in the rod. Grant

Here is a little model I picked up in Germany a few years ago (I try and get model with a conection to the country I am in when I travel). This one was built for the Flight Test GB on ARC. 1 sprue, plus some PE and the canopy. The cokpit interior seems over sized, but the PE has added a nice level of detail. Colours is an intersting question. Various shades of green have been used in other peoples builds, and the instructions give RLM02, but the box art is BMF! I prefered the BMF idea, but after looking at the videos on YouTube, decided I needed a dark shade so went with Alcald 'Dark Aluminium' and 'Chrome' for contrast. The Dark is possibly too dark, but it looks good stood next to the Whittle I built last year. As ever, any and all comments welcome. cheers Grant

Soory ICE, missed your question about "what are static vents", but I see you have found a good picture. The STBD ones are in the same vertical and fore and aft positions. Cheers Grant

Lovely, work so far. So much detail inside. That last picture showing the console insitu, with the PE bits on the outside reminds me. Please, please, please put the static vents on the STBD side aswell. I really don't understand why they are missing on the kit!? I use some 1/35 scale PE washers that I got hold of that are just the job for replicating the static vents. cheers Grant

Well spotted Julien. Having "cut'n'pasted" I didn't think to check the link. Sorted now. cheers Grant

All good points. I'll have to bear them in mind when I get around to mine. cheers Grant

And here it is finished. Here is a shot of the front, showing the homemade decals. Went with red, green and yellow for the decal with the lion on, though no proof positive discovered, just some sage advice. More pics, including a B&W comparison with original, over in 'Ready for Inspection' area here. cheers Grant

Here is my first attempt at armour modelling. The build thread is here Having digitized a set of photos for a friend, one of them had a nice little scene in that looked like a good excuse to have a go at armour modelling. Home made decals, scratchbuilt side box and rear end radiator cover. Painted in Humbrol acrylics (very nice stuff!) and Lifecolor. Here is the original photo, followed by my attempt. and here are some full colour shots. Any and all comments welcome cheers Grant

Nice Sea King. I think they definitely look good in yellow. Although, nit picking here, shouldn't it have one yellow blade? I too, am getting to like acrylics, but am weening myself of enamels slowly. cheers Grant

Looked good, until I checked the scale. It's absolutely stunning! The clean, consistent, panel and rivet detail and the camo demarcation, not to mention the nice weathering with the hydraulic and oil leaks. I just wish I could work that neatly. cheers Grant