Fatcawthorne

Thanks Col, how's the F.2T going? Is there a thread for that or was it so long ago it's on floppy disks or punch cards somewhere?? Anyways I saw my friend Ken off in as good a style as lockdown would allow earlier in the week. Ken was on his third marriage (one of his daughters from the second marriage works for me so I was mainly supporting her and her twin sister on the day as they had very few other relatives there that they knew), so there were a few power-plays in evidence at the funeral. Despite being part of 2 Para during the Falklands campaign the eulogy only mentioned his prior service with the old 3 Royal Anglians, which infuriated his brother (along with all the other factual errors in it which could have been avoided if he'd been consulted). Why do folks cut out the other relatives at times like this? Nice to see a Pompadours flag though which was touchingly spread on Ken's coffin. So as it was a another week I would prefer to not go through again, the man-cave got a fair bit of use and abuse. Mrs FC is still looking after her Mum up in Sheffield so no foul, no harm at the moment. Not sure I'll get so much "me-time" when she finally returns to Fort FatCawthorne though! So what did we do? Thankfully I took some photos otherwise my brain would be so scrambled I could only tell you that the Airfix Goblins must've visited in the night!! The ARC's on each wing were given a more subdued "greying", giving us................. With every photo of every machine seeming to show a different combination of greys I concentrated on just getting the closest matches using my very own Mk.1 Eyeball technique. The next steps were to prepare the fuselages to accept the wings, this involved fitting @Shaun's resin wing sweep covers that I bought from him donkeys years back and set aside for just this moment! The Airfix and the Italeri kits weren't really designed to use these as they're to fit the Revell kit, but hey we're on a mission, we have razor saws and scalpels, so let's do it!!!! You can probably see the feint line in the primer under the covers on the bottom image of the Italeri version, where the measure twice and cut once mantra didn't quite go to plan and the resultant gap got filled with plasticard. Never said I was clever did I???? OK, have started prepping some of the smaller parts too; the wheels were homebrewed resin copies of the Xtrakit parts for the Airfix and Italeri ones (the kit parts are a bit pants IMO) and the kit parts for the Revell one. They got a spray of Halfords finest Grey Primer.............. I will also be using homebrew copies of the Aries undercarriage doors for the Airfix and Italeri versions for the reasons mentioned earlier for the wheels! Anyways it was time to start aiming to get the fuselages buttoned up, the Revell one still following Nathan's tutorial and the other two, well just winging it really!!!! In the last image you can see a repair to the inner wall of the port intake that I knocked off in handling, and promptly ran over with my chair castors - doh!!!! The Revell wings have been masked to save grief and too much re-painting later in the build. A different tactic will get used for the other two as the wing gloves are moulded integral to the fuselage halves. The other two versions had the wing gloves painted before joining the fuselage halves, which hopefully should make masking for the rest of the airframe easier when we get to that stage. The fuselages were then TET'd to within an inch of their lives and joined together and PPP'd.................. The Revell kit got its schnozz added too and faired in using sanding blocks and finally using more PPP. It wasn't a great fit this part, I even doubted I hadn't accidently switched the nose cone with the Italeri one as it was that far off in places. I found the wing pivots to be a bit lacking on the Italeri and Airfix kit and the port Italeri one sheared off, leading to a repair with brass rod and PPP, (the white dot on the underside of the glove!!!). The Italeri has had a fair bit of PPP aPPPlied (see what I did there, Royalties are due if you use it please Mr PPP!) and sanded down to smooth the fuselage joints, but the winner for the 2021 PPP Queen of the Air goes to the Airfix kit unsurprisingly................. Once this has dried off good and proper it will get attention from one of the manicurists sanding blocks to knock it all back and blend it all in. Hopefully we'll lose the vast majority of it! Now that's a proper cliffhanger to be ending on eh? Eat your heart out Eastenders, duff duff, duff, duff duff!! Well that's all for this update folks....... So until the next time, keep safe out there and see y'all soon! Chris

Thanks Col, Having had a few more hours in the man-cave this weekend we've made a couple more baby-steps towards this project. All the wings got another (and hopefully final!!) coat of Mr Hobby Aqueous LAG, together with the Revell and Airfix tailplane undersides (the Italeri ones are MSG). Now the best topside photo of I could find of one of my intended victims, ZE791 (which will be resplendant in her final retirement scheme with a big 25 and roundal on the fin), is copyrighted, but can be viewed on this link here. Now my Mk1 eyeball sees the wing sweep area's ARC (Abrasion Resistant Coating) for this bird to be a lighter grey than I expected. To me it's very similar in shade to the Camouflage/Barley Grey, rather than the much darker Tamiya German Grey that I originally painted these areas in. In fact I would expect to see this colour ARC on the F3's later repainted in MSG not on BG/LAG wings, but looking at the mix-match patchwork of panels in the photo linked to, well anything is possible!!! I will therefore overpaint with the IMHO slightly off-shade of the early batch of Mr Hobby H334 which is close but no cigar to what I think proper Barley Grey should look like. I did a few swatches of the colours I had to hand for this project and the top H334 is the old batch and the one below is the new. I think there is enough difference to make this contrast worthwhile. Therefore we did some masking ..... and we did some painting.................. Now dang it, hang on there; the Revell kit is supposed to be the Op Telic jet ZE962 isn't it, as I want the extra pylons to hang PHIMAT and BOZ pods from, so I've only gone and painted the wrong wings - doh!!!! Not the worst drama in the world I know, and ZE962's ARC is not quite as dark as Tamiya German Grey (see another copyrighted link here) so a repaint was probably in order anyways. Tamiya's XF-83 from above looks favourite at the moment. I eventually discovered that there were at least two distinctly different ARCs applied to F3's, a darker early shade and a lighter later one. We live and learn. Perhaps I shouldn't have narrowed down all my earliest gathered photographic references to ZE907 Red Zebra as the clearest photo I'd found of its ARC showed it to be quite dark, leading me to assume all would be the same. I should know by now that it's never that easy - Numpty Boy!!! https://aerospotuk.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/21.jpg?w=840&h=516 If only I'd read this thread first!! Anyways, not a showstopper but I've packed up for now and am going to watch The Chase instead!!! Anyways, ZE791's Italeri wings will get the same treatment as given to the Revell wings on my next soiree into the Man-Cave. For those who find these sort of things interesting (like all of us!!!), one more link for you to peruse. Here's a 1:1 WIP of ZE791 getting her final special scheme painted up. Well that's enough waffle for one evening, Bradley is waiting for me (I'm a proper The Chase fan in that I put my telly at the top of the stairs to watch it!!!!) and I need a cup of tea before I switch it on!! So until next time, stay safe and well out there; "mind t' trams"!! Chris

Thanks for following along fellas and for the encouragement and support. Times are still not quite rosy yet, so the solace of the man-cave is a great support and comfort. Anyways, still trying to advance steadily on all three fronts, with the Revell version getting the next attention. Unlike Nathan's video build I was unable to leave the inside of the intake trunks unpainted and un-filled so they were given a PPPing and a Light Gull Grey coat. The homebrewed resin wheel wells necessitated a bit of surgery to the fuselage bottom and the intake trunking to fit perfectly, but they have not been glued, just using the pressure from glueing the trunking to the fuselage is sufficient. The nose piece was filled with tiny fishing weight spheres, a la Liquid Gravity, set within cheap superglue together with a tiny plasticard disc at the very tip and a 19mm or so disc at the open end to keep it all in the right place and stopping it rattling!! A similar job was done to the Italeri nose, and some self-adhesive tyre-balancing weights were added to the Airfix lower fusleage in some off-camera shenanigans. Again with the aim of having as step-free a spine/intake/nose join as possible the cockpit section was added to the Revell upper fuselage. Hopefully this will allow us to keep the lovely surface detail of these parts unsullied by the sanding sticks! The cannon insert was TET'd into place but there is a huge gap at the rear of that panel that will get a Plasticard shimming at some point. Not sure if this is a kit shortcoming or something of my making. Once the intake trunking was set firm, the fuselage sides were attached; as a sidenote lots of preparation and cleaning up with the sanding stick is necessary here to get a stepless join at this point. In fact I overswiped the part just behing the port wheel well but this will be remedied with PPP. The Italeri cockpit sub-assembly was given it's pointy bit, with good a good sanding, PPPing and a rescibing of lost details.......... And after a rubdown this is how we look under a test coat of Halfords Grey................. Time now to give some attention to the wings. The Revell wings were glued and joints cleaned up...... I took the oppotunity to add wingtip navigation lights to the Italeri and Airfix parts. I used clear sprue, which was cut to match the reciprocal cutouts made in the wings and was drilled to give the impression of a bulb (the hole drilled was filled with either Tamiya Clear Red or Green to emphasize the bulb).... Once the cement had sufficiently hardened the clear sprue was sanded using a 4-way nail buffer to shape and then polished to clarity. These were then masked and the wings were all primed. The navigation light covers are a sort of fish shape, which I hope will come through in the final reveal. The Revell flap parts were built up and primed too.... With the plan to paint the wings before attaching to the fuselage progressed, the wings were pre-shaded with Tamiya German Grey, which should make the end result less harsh than using my normal black (all photos of F3's I've seen don't show too much colour variation which the heavier pre-shading will give), and Mr Hobby Aqueous LAG was given as a first coat on the undersides. The Tamiya German Grey was also used to represent the areas where the wing goes into the fuselage or under the wing gloves. Again this shade differs on virtually every F3 I've seen (just like the nose radomes!!), so once all the masking is removed these areas may get toned down to represent the individual airframes represented. The uppers got their coats of Mr Hobby Barley Grey H335. Now has anyone else used batches of this that look the wrong shade? The first couple of coats really didn't have much of what I would describe as the blue cast to this shade, looking more like a slightly darker version of their LAG. It was only after a new bottle from a newer batch was bought that I started to see something I was happier with. Made a bit of a Horlicks with some spatter on one of the Italeri wings which has been rubbed back ready for another coat or two. and finally I wasn't happy with the gaps around the spoilers on the Revell wing uppers so I used some Vallejo putty to fill these and these too will get another coat to hide this. Having run out of LAG before 100% finishing the lower wings (they will get a final coat now I've received another pot), the tailplanes didn't get any of this colour yet. However one of the builds (the Italeri) is going to be ZE791 in its retirement scheme so the tops of the tailplanes for this one were given a coat of Mr Hobby MSG. The other kits' tailplane uppers were painted up in Barley Grey...... The Airfix ones had a couple of gaps open up in the re-scribing of the panel lines, again filled with Valljo Acrylic Putty, which will get another coat of the Bluer Barley grey. Two of my markings choices will have BOL rails and ASRAAMS and the only ones amongst the 3 kits are the Airfix offerings. To say they're basic is a major understatement. I tried to find resin replacements from a UK supplier but Mother Hubbard's cupboard was bare, so using the very few reference photos that I could find online I set about busying them up a little and have now taken silicone moulds to cast some replacement parts in resin. I wasn't aiming at perfection but just for an improvement over the Airfix efforts. TBH they're on the inners of the pylons so not much is going to be seen. OK the first casting didn't go too well as I suspect my resin was too cold, making the casting very brittle and it shattered on de-moulding, however the resin has gone in the airing cupboard to warm up and we'll have another go. Well sorry for the long update again, the builds are still progressing but the reporting is to say the least sporadic!!! So until the next installment, stay safe and well out there Modellerinos!! Chris

Thanks Colin, got to love a clamp! Reminds me of that time down in the cellar of my old property with a bunch of nuns, the Colchester Garrison Regimental Goat and ................ (the rest of this story has been removed on legal advice - Ed!). Cheers Col. Well I've been away from the keyboard for a couple of weeks or so, as life's unpleasantness really got in the way again. Mrs FC is still up in Sheffield looking after her Mum, but sadly since the last update I've lost a couple of friends to the virus. Although they weren't "closest circle" friends it has still shook me up a bit as it feels like the pandemic is creeping ever closer and closer to home, and has had me hiding away in my Man Cave trying to block out the real world. The sad part for one of my friends is that he was a 2 Para Falklands vet, and having come through that unpleasantness unscathed he then got blown up over the water which damaged his lungs. Still can't get to grips with it all!!! So we've had some fairly dis-organised progress during this period. Some skillful editing later and we still have this rambling all over the place like mad-woman's excrement episode............ I intend to complete the Revell kit as a 2003 Op TELIC Tornado, so have researched the payloads for these. Here's a couple of good threads for your entertainment that helped this process!! The consensus for 2003 is therefore 4x Skyflash, 4x ASRAAM (innermost 2 on BOLs), the smaller fuel tanks (might save the Revell Hindenbergers for the Italeri kit but we'll decide that later) on the inner pylons and on the outer pylons a PHIMAT and BOZ. I've therefore pinched the Airfix kit's ASRAAMs and PHIMAT parts as I plan to make the Airfix kit into Red Zebra in a clean configuration. I will also be using @Shaun's outer pylons (as well as using his wing-sweep seals). I may consider some aftermarket ASRAAMs if I can't make a silk purse out of the Airfix pig's ears. The smaller tanks and the inner pylons were given some clamp action too. You'll see I've also glued the tailerons, the intake trunking and parts of the fin too. And here are those parts in their naked glory after a rub down with a damp copy of the Sporting Life.................... The fin got in on the game too............. Thoughts turned back to the cockpit/front end of the trio. This is the Revell cockpit pretty much from the box with the kit decals and a coat of W&N Matt Varnish. Good enough I say! One of the Neomega home brews was added to the Airfix upper fuselage half. It only needed the tiniest amount of surgery to fit ................ The Revell kit's front end got buttoned up next............ I have been following a Revell Tornado video tutorial by Nathan Robinson on the Flory Models site which moves well away from the Revell destructions in order to achieve a step free build around the spine/intakes/front cockpit joins and therefore I have glued the cockpit to the fuselage sides, but without glueing the lower joins in order to give the model some flex for later in the build. Check out the videos as Nathan will explain stuff far better than I'll manage!! Moved onto the Italeri front end and the Neomega cockpit was CA glued into the left fuselage half. Then the fuselage halves were joined................. And here are the Revell and Italeri together........... Now the Aires Wheel Well set for the Revell kit has arrived and has had some homebrew silicone moulds cpoied from them and a set has been cast up for each kit. Although it hasn't captured 100% of the originals details, they are a good 9/10 in my book, so will be far superior to the kit offerings (especially the Italeri and Airfix parts). Here they are with a coat of Halfords primer having had a good thinning to ready them for the Revell kit. The nose bay is CA'd to the Revell fuselage underside.............. And here's the unprimed main wells superglued into the lower Italeri fuselage............... The Airfix kit needed the moulded-in wells removed with the Dremel................. The nosewheel well got some surgery to fit................. ..... and here they are fitted.............. The Revell bays were given a coat of US Light Gull Grey (the lightest grey that I have) and then a Future Wash.............. Seen here together with the engines compressor blades. The 3 fins have all been filled, sanded, rescribed etc (you'll see that I've added the Xtrapart front part to the Italeri fin), and the Airfix one has had a Halfords white primering ready for some gloss white to begin its Zebrafication. I have added the rear fillet to the Revell fin earlier than shown in Nathan's video. I hope this doesn't come back to bite my bum!! I have joined the Revell spine to the fuslelage upper, giving the mating surfaces lots of attention to ensure a step-free joint............... The intakes inner parts have been attached again making a step free join. This will get joined next to the front end. Before I do that, there is a bit of a sink mark fest at the rear of the Cockpit section that has had some attention from the PPP tube! Well there we are, we're up to date now. Thanks for sticking with it up to here. If anyone has any tips to improve my photography (am using a Nikon D40 DSLR, usually on the P Programme to get a manual Flash setting) as I am struggling with focus and depth of field and I would love to improve!!! So until the next update stay safe out there my modelling muckers!!! Chris

Thanks again Col and not wrong. Managed to get back on the road by MOTing son #1's passion wagon that he's lost interest in since stopping his driving lessons. Here's hoping that the Italeri effort may be a bit easier on the modelling mojo!!! The blind alliegance to Airfix borne out of being brought up on them since "I were knee high t'grasshopper", has a lot to answer for!! I have 4 other Airfix Tornados in the stash, so the madness may well continue!!! I'm kicking myself I didn't get in in time too, Colin. I had it on my radar but other builds overrun due to life just plain getting in the way. I'm hoping to finish all 3 together and cross the line arm in arm like a Brownlee Brother. The opinions on each should be fresh for a fair comparison that way. https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/nintchdbpict000267902061.jpg OK no wheel wells have arrived as yet so I've been cracking on with the cockpits. I'm using the homebrew Neomega cockpits for the Airfix and Italeri versions. Primered and out of focus .................... And then painted........................... A bit of CA'ing, drybrushing with a lighter grey and Flat Aluminium and a Future Wash later...................... They will get a satin cote in due course. I decided the Revell F3 cockpit was going to be built out of the box, bar the seats. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I was planning to try and graft my scratchbuilt F3 backseater panel onto part A15 below, but having looked at the kit's transfers, the rear panel sticker (decal 100) bore no relation to the IDS/GR4 part A15 panel so it made me look further, suspecting something was amiss...... There is no mention in the destructions that you should in fact use part no. S214......................... As you can see this does look like like a F3 rear panel (here it is with the mudmovers panel)................... I'm sure plenty of modellers will miss this!! I've cemented together the Revell cockpit parts, primed in Halfords Grey and shot a base of Tamiya MSG and Future Washed rady for the kit transfers.............. As the area behind the Nav's head was a bit plain, I grafted a Neomega part on, which although not completely accurate from what I have seen on the rare F3 photos on the web that show this area, it is at least "busier"! All 3 got their cockpit sidewalls masked, primed and MSG'd too, here are the Italeri and Revell versions............ I had also cemented the Airfix wings and the fin ready for later on in the build. Here they are free of their shackles together with the tailerons which are now masked and Sprue Glooped ready for a good rub down and re-scribe together with the wing tips. I thought it a good idea to dry fit the fin into the upper half of the fuselage................. Those aren't shadows, they are monster gaps!!! Some sprue spreaders later and we have a tighter fit................ Close enough for Government work and should be far easier to blend into the fuselage spine now. I also dug out my F3 stickers from the Decal Dungeon.... Am already erring towards Red Zebra for the Airfix build and will have a good look through and have a good think for the other two. Now it looks like I might have to build a few more in my future as I've got too many schemes on my wish list; still it'd keep the stash in check eh?!! And that's where we are now, so until next time stay safe and catch up soon (most probably pretty soon as I'm guessing Boris will be advising us tonight that we can all have some more time off for modelling purposes!!). Chris

But what about if she’s playing snooker at the same time? Beatrix Potter!!!

I've spent far too long looking for them that it stopped me building, the depravity of it, and I can't find what version the consoles were based on for the life of me. It's up there with Nessie and Bigfoot for mysteries as far as I'm concerned! Anyways with Mrs FC away and as it's my birthday I spent almost all day in the man cave. OK some of it was spent prepping my work van for its MOT tomorrow, and a bit spent removing and cleaning the intercooler on my everyday Transit bus (had a runaway diesel engine as the turbo failed and the engine went out of control consuming the oil coming out through the turbo seals, through the intercooler and then into the inlet manifold. It's a bit of a shock if you've never had a runaway engine happen before!!!!), but I did get some modelling done since the last update. Anyways, this is meant to be a triple compare and contrast build between the Airfix, Italeri and the far more recent Revell offering so where do we start? Alphabetically Airfix is first so that seemed as good a place as any. Quality-wise it is the dog of the group, so by starting it first I also shouldn't run out of enthusiasm before it gets finished as its ancient-tooling could result in a mega case of NFI if not kept under wraps. Now with having 3 unbuilt kits on the workbench it's a tad on the comfy side, so I've chosen not to do full sprue shots (I feel your disappointment, I really do BM'ers!). Son #2 who went through the secondary school system with School Refusal Anxiety, (a genuine condition that stopped a straight A*'s maths genius from fulfilling any of his academic potential, poor lad), has started a Furniture Making course at the local college and he's now a happy, challenged and fulfilled lad once more so I've bequeathed half of my mancave for him to use as a woodworking area to help him stay that way. Anyways space is a premium and all the sprues are piled up on my photographic area so as the bits hit the workbench I'll record them for posterity! The Airfix F3 is from the Frontline Fighters boxing, so is the re-pop with the correct length cockpit. Well I assume it is correct as it matches the Italeri kit's dimensions, so good enough for me. This was also the last kit I built in my pre-BM days, where research and accuracy were not my absolute priority and I will present a comparison or how far we've come since joining this happy family once I finish this version. What I do remember, together with what I've read on other members penances builds of this kit, is that the new engraved-detailed upper fuselage part really doesn't want to match the width of the raised panel lined lower half, meaning that the split horizontal join is difficult to say the least to make good. To this extent I have added lots of plastic card tabs to the upper fuselage, which were then contoured to fit the lower, to secure a decent alignment of the parts. Something else I remember was the fragility of the tailerons fitment to the fuselage and how I had to use brass rod to fix it on my previous build after knocking them off umpteen times; this time we'll go with that technique from the get go. As I am using the homebrewed Neomega GR1 cockpit, with my own cast from scratchbuilt F3 peculiarities, I chopped up the cockpit opening to accept it, removing both the nav's and the driver's coamings. Now the cockpit openings of the Airfix and the Italeri offerings of course dont match with the Airfix opening being considerably wider, and the resin was designed to fit the latter. I therefore attempted to replicate the riveted angle strip/lip on the cockpit seal which can be seen here. https://www.tornadosig.com/uploads/4/2/0/0/4200523/5701722_orig.jpg I TETed a strip of the thinnest Evergreen sheet I had to the sides of the cockpit, leaving it a gnat's preverbial's width proud of the seal, and then added another strip of much thicker sheet at the same height as the seal to close in the opening. I then added a plasticard blanking to the pilot's coaming area as without that the Neomaga part would just fall through the hole!!!! Even with the plastic card tabs there was still a bit of mix-match between the halves aroung the wing-sweep glove area so I added a sprue spreader bar to reinforce this flimsyish joint. Now we had matching fuselage halves, and after a ham-fisted attempt to rescribe the main panels lines on the lower fuselage, breaking my favourite scriber (again) in the process, I attempted to sand the rear of the halves as flush as possible whilst dry-fitted to make life easier once the halves are finally glued together. The broken scriber is the top one of the two, from Dream Models who don't answer emails regarding the purchase of spare scriber blades. If anyone knows how to get spares from this company then that shared knowledge would be well received! Thankfully my back up Squadron scriber is pretty good too, it just needs some more careful (and lighter!) handling than the Dream Models scriber to avoid ghost lines and slippages. When I built this last time I would have any opening-feature such as the air/speed brakes, fully displayed on my builds; however I now prefer things to be closed up as much as possible, so you are unlikely to find open gun or electrical bays on any of my builds (even though I have plenty for many different types in my resin stash!) in the forseeable. I was a tad fretful about the potential fit of the speed brakes, but I was worrying over nothing as they were an almost perfect fit straight off the bat. Once the TET has fully cured they'll get a quick sanding 100% flush. I then gave the eponymous "Fin" some attention. By now my scribing was improving so I was pleased with the re-scribing of each half. I am happy that having looked at plans online that the raised panel lines are more or less in the right places so I used them to guide my preliminary strokes. After the raised details were sanded off I then re-scribed the rescribings to give them a bit more depth, then brushed out any sanding dust in them and using capillary action wicked some TET into them to soften any jagged edges. The tailerons were quite a good dry-fit, but the way the join is designed meant that Sprue gloop needed to be slathered over the joint to be sanded flush and then re-scribed when fully fully dry. Anyways did you notice that earlier I mentioned that the Squadron scriber needed a bit more careful handling than I was used to, in order to get a decent result. Well the first thing I re-scribed with it was the wings, and no brown-stuff Sherlock you'll have noticed that I am yet to mention any work on the wings. This is purely out of embarassment for the Horlicks I made of my first scribing attempt. I also had temporarily mislaid my favourite, slightly flexible, 6 inch metal rule, so rather than turn the bench upside-down (which in hindsight was the way forward), I chose to use strips cut from a broken retractable tape measure. Unfortunately finger pressure wasn't sufficient to prevent slippages and I ended up with wonky and deep troughs and ghost panel lines that looked awful. I therefore primed the wing halves, and filled the trenches with PPP and then sanded everything back flush. I then used my new-found light-touch approach to scribing and very very gently and repeatedly re-added the panel lines. After a couple of coats of Halfords Grey Primer they look acceptable, not good just acceptable! Why did I re-scribe parts as visible as the wings first, when I hadn't attempted anything on this scale before? We live and learn!! Here's where we are with them now, as I said they're just about acceptable. OK, sufficient resin cockpit parts for two builds have been cleaned up and primed and this could be the next step. The fuselage walls between the side consoles and the canopy seal appear to be devoid of stuff or any details on the 1:1 Tonka so I will just prime and paint the bare fuselage sides too. I'm going to go with Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea Grey as the main cockpit colour. Please poke me if you think I'm barking up the wrong tree with this Shade of Grey (but not the sort of poking that E.L. James's Shades of Grey would give me please, we've only just met!!), as I have seen much conflicting information regarding Tonka cockpit colours. I will also have a sort through the Decal Dungeon to find some scemes for my builds. I'm pretty sure I have an old Xtradecal sheet with the Red Zebra on it which would brighten up my display cabinet, however let's see what other schemes I have available before we go firm. Anyways, that's enough waffling, and it's well past midnight and therefore not technically my birthday anymore. With the missus away we'll do pressies and stuff when she gets back, but I did buy myself the Aires wheel well set as a cheeky gift to myself today. It is designed for the Revel kit but it's not going to hurt to see if I can mangle it sufficiently to fit this and the Italeri versions too. Once it arrives from Model Hobbies (ah you may see the flaw in my plan here!) I will take a mould of the parts and cast some replicas to let me practice getting a decent fit on. Until next time, stay safe and well out there and speak soon. Chris

And what do you call a woman who’s just had a haemorrhoids operation? Anita Harris.

Thanks, but you deserve a medal for doing all 3; my excuse for attempting them is that at least I know I'm mad!!!! Funnilly enough the GR Tonkas might just be getting an outing then, assuming I ever finish these and the Lightning (and the two stalled Phantoms) on the S.O.D.!!! Thanks Col, (and thanks for the welcome earlier which I ignorantly ignored last time!), I sometimes think we should be more careful of what we wish for! To that extent "The Judges results are in!!" Here's the first pressings....................... White resin is a bit of a PIA (and I don't mean Pakistan International Airlines!) to photograph so here it is without flash........ If anyone has any DSLR tips for a photographic newbie then please chip in. I'm sure once I've got some Halfords Grey Primer on them then the details will (fingers crossed!) be far more visable. Now when I was searching through the resin stash, I also found these Heritage items. I knew I had them before I started this project but rejected them from the list as soon as I saw them again. Now before I call these out as the Starfix Spitfire of the aftermarket world, does anyone know what they were based on? It says F3 Rear consoles so must've been mastered after the F2 had been about so shouldn't be based on plain speculation but they bear no resemblence to any F3 consoles I've seen. Who can't resist a little dry fit when you get to this stage??? And here's a comparison with what comes in the Italeri box, which may be useful should any builds need to be F.3T airframes (OK am planning for the 4th build just in case, as have found another Italeri F3 in the stash, erm plus two more Airfix - I know I have a problem, I just don't need Mrs FC to remind me twenty times a day though!!!!) As I said earlier, the resin in its raw state is a royal pain to capture details on. Next job is to slather on some primer and see how we go from there and hopefully I'll be able to justify to the wider world the work put in just to get this far. Stay safe and well folks, 'til the next time. Chris

Having stuffed myself with leftovers including leftover stuffing, ("Bits and Chips" is our family Boxing Day tradition), I am going to use the last of my energy for a tiny tiny update on what we've done over the Festive holiiday. It's not a lot TBH and we're still a way from the promissed pre-build sprue shots to get your excitement levels bubbling!!! Here's what Santa left under the tree..................... Now Mrs FC is up in Sheffield looking after Mrs C-in-Law, as Nora had come out of Hospital the day before Christmas Eve, so it had to be Santa!!! OK with no "Handbrake" around to say "You're not off to the garage on Christmas Day", the present was immediately put to use. The plan was to copy the Neomega Lightning T4 set to un-log-jam that build, and to make moulds to cast my subtly altered instrument panels for these F3 builds. These were demoulded this morning and TBH some of the Neomega details were so fine the actual parts I'd copied fell to pieces during the demoulding process. I had also not moulded the instrument panel in the first tranche (the film of resin in the holes for the pilots' legs had been pierced so I had to use Krystal Klear to repair this moulding-improving membrane which took too long to dry for my impatient 12 year old self!) and the canopy inners which needed beefing up, so with having to copy these too to finish the set I therefore thought I'd record the process for posterity. Now where else can the inner 12YO play with Play Doh and Lego and still retain that mature air of a true gentleman??? Our raw materials........... Poured into the mixing jar in a 10:1 ratio............... And thrashed to within an inch of it's life with the wooden spatula to make a far tastier and probably more nutricious Angel Delight substitute......... Whilst digging through the Resin stash I also found the Paragon Tornado afterburners set plus the Xtraparts Italeri fin correction and wheels set which all ended up disappearing under a sea of pink!! I also have re-moulded the Tornado's seats and instrument coaming as these were "could do better" items from the initial run. Now as I also had a nice fresh new set of resin, I couldn't resist filling the newly debonded moulds and these all went off to roast at 20+ degrees C overnight in my airing cupboard. (it sounds sexier if you use your inner Nigella monologue!!) What am I going to use when the trouble and strife comes home?!! Well that's it for tonight, going to switch off now and put the Big Fat Quiz of the Year on the box to watch with the kids, as my lads' favourite James Acaster is one of the contestants. So until next time (I will give you sprue and box shots I promise!), stay safe and well and remember it's only 364 sleeps 'til Christmas! Chris

Reminds me of a blonde, dyslexic Essex Girl girlfriend I once had who came home distraught from the doctors one day. She was upset and crying as she told me that the doctor had said he thought she had tiny tits; took a while to explain, it’s tinnitus love, tinnitus!!!!

Best cracker joke yet!!! If life is throwing Melons at you, then there’s a good chance you have dyslexia!! Your go.........

OK, it doesn't matter how much I try I can't make the title say F33; hopefully this doesn't set the tone for this thread from the get go!!!! Anyways my Lightning T4 build in this GB has stalled, due to the simple reason that the CMK resin cockpit that I was using in conjunction with the Aeroclub IM Fuselage conversion bears absolutely no relation to any picture of a 2 seat Lightning that I can find, and I found loads believe me! Reminded me of Blackadder's attempts to draw the German defences in the WW1 trenches of Blackadder Goes Fourth. Go off and draw me an image of a Lightning Trainer Cockpit Baldrick!!! As an aside the opening credits for that series were filmed just round the corner from Chez FC on the Parade Square of the Cavalry Barracks in Colly which have since been upgraded to high-end housing, such is progress eh?!! I've therefore ordered the Neomega Lightning set that was specifically designed around the Aeroclub conversion, but as any of you that have read any of my recent build threads will know I have developed an obsession with making silicon moulds of my resin parts in order to cast my own home-brew copies. As I have 3 of John's Lightning T-Bird conversions then the copies will get put to good use. Now what to do in the meanwhile whilst waiting for the postie eh? Twiddle my thumbs; do some DIY; talk to my family (last time I did that I found out my wife no longer works at Woolworths, so to avoid nasty shocks like that I'll swerve that I think!) or just plain veg out on the sofa to see off the end of this car-crash of a year? No those ideas are far too sensible. Whilst looking through my resin stash, just in case I already had the Lightning set, I came across the Neomega Tornado GR1 resin set. Now this got me thinking. I have quite a few examples of the three 1/48 mainstream versions of the Tornado F3 in the stash, Revell, Italeri and that Airfix Inbred Cousin that nobody in the family talks about! What about a compare and contrast build of the three? There lies madness................. Now that's an Interceptor too I thought, plus I was a bit miffed that I'd missed the Tornado Warning STGB TBH! So the cogs whirred a bit more and the Revell and Italeri kits were hunted down to have their plastic fondled to see if there could be any mileage in this. Now I was aware enought to know that: 1) all 3 of these kits have cockpits that either in the whole, or just in part, bear no relation to any F3 cockpit I again have seen piccies of (these piccies are rarer than the Lightning ones though!); and 2) that there are subtle differences between the GR1 cockpit as per this set and the F3 cockpit. The main area of change as far as I want to acknowledge in my builds are the rear Nav's consoles and main instrument panel and the different square screen, front centre of the driver's instrument panel. If not covering other cockpit differences will upset you, please look away now. For starters I copied the Neomega parts. And what good's an obsession if you really can't go to town on it............... OK I will admit to having 9 or 10 GR1/4 kits from the same Holy Trinity that these will get used on too!! Where's the 12 step programme for us nutters then eh??? I found that the Revell kit had the most convincing "between cockpit console deck" area, but it was still a little bit shy of detail, so I used this as a basis to scratchbuild a buck to mould further copies from. I am not what you'd call a competent scratch builder yet. I've had a couple of goes over the past few builds as my confidence grows, but it's no master-modeller stuff!! This is what I was aiming at....... https://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/wp-content/gallery/tornado-f3/5.jpg?i=670343893 https://www.airteamimages.com/pics/10/10178_800.jpg https://www.tornadosig.com/uploads/4/2/0/0/4200523/8968798_orig.jpg https://imgproc.airliners.net/photos/airliners/8/2/4/2256428.jpg?v=v40 You'll have to click the link on this one as it's Airliners . Net and I don't want them having a paddy!!! I also removed the detail from the centre part of the Navigator's panel and rebuilt this using Evergreen sheet and swearing. At the time I only had enough Silicon to mould these 2 pieces and when Mrs FC found that I had had a re-plen come through the post this was duly confiscated, wrapped up with a nice bow and put under the Christmas Tree as she didn't have a clue what to get me for the big day that I'd actually want and use!!!! So I can't even copy my Lightning bits either until the Big Man's been down the chimney tomorrow!!! Although I moulded and cast this together with the consoles I wasn't happy with the result of the panel as the details were far too soft .......... More than happy with the consoles though............. So although I was now out of Silicon until after the Turkey gets stuffed I had another go at the Nav's panel..... Not perfect but a step up on the first attempt..... I also removed the round screen from the pilot's panel and made a square one. Hopefully by this time tomorrow the revised nav's and the pilot's panels will be safely ensconced under a layer of pretty pink latex and will be curing nicely in my airing cupboard!! Well not a normal start to a GB build I know, but I've now done the leg work that will allow me to make a fair stab at a proper F3 cockpit, and this should fit both the Italeri and the Airfix plastic. I may even be able to squeeze bits in to improve the Revell Nav's panel. Next up will be some usual box top and sprues shots and then hopefully we can get down to some proper plastic mangling! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all have as good a day as Boris (insert you own leader's name here if not in UK) will allow! Stay safe until next time. Chris

Well having had a 'mare in the BoB GB by trying to rush to beat the deadline clock, I'm hoping to have more luck with a future succesor to that build's Spitfire in the RAF Interceptor role, the English Electric Lightning. The plan is to utilise the Aeroclub conversion set to make the Airfix 1/48 F.1 boxing into it's uglier twin (for those that disagree, Harry Hill has the only answer "there's only one way to find out......."), the two seat trainer version, the T.4. Now I also have an incomplete CMK conversion set for the same T-Bird marks which I am going to use for the inards of this build. I'm not confident enough to blend that set's new resin nose onto Airfix's plastic body but am happy to have a go at the Aerorclub IM fuselage parts, (and TBH the CMK cockpit parts knock the Aeroclub white metal parts to a cocked hat). Now I have 3 Aeroclub sets, so for the next T.4/5 build in my future I may even try to get hold of the Neomega cockpit, specifically designed to be used with the Aeroclub fuselage halves. OK I have already built a single-seat Lightning this year, and that ended up as a bit of a Horlicks too (see a pattern emerging yet????), which was caused by making a real mess of the Natural Metal Finish, and then a bigger mess of the paint stripping to remove it - who knew that Paint Stripper melts resin, well I do now!!! Anyways I want to have another crack at NMF, although with the preparation needed not to show any blemishes with that sort of finish I'm not 100% sure doing a cut and shut is a great idea, but hey we will have a giggle along the way. The intended victim, to keep to the Interceptor theme will be a squadron allocated airframe, as doing a far more colourful OCU T-Bird might stretch the definition too far for this GB. I have been thinking of building to the 74 Sqn theme theme for a while now (having Phantoms aplenty as well as plenty of F2/6 Lightnings just for starters), so why not start here. The plan, which if it survives the first contact, is to build XM974 'T' as pictured below on 18 September 1965 at RAF Leuchars. There are a few differently coloured panels to add even more interest. I will be using the Xtradecal X48151 set and the choice of metal paint will be made on the hoof as I go along!!! Any suggestions/recommendations will be greatfully accepted at this point! Anyways onwards and upwards, let's have a look at what we're actually going to be mangling ............. One of the three Aeroclub Conversion sets. Unfortunately 2 of them have quite yellowed canopies, so for future builds either I will use an unusable one to make a buck to vacform/plungemould others, or if I buy the Neomega set I may just ask them sweetly if I can also buy some of their transparencies to go with it. Plenty of decal options for all the T.4/5 sets I have (plus the Sword kits!). I am currently making some home-brew copies of the CMK resin set for the cockpit parts, pictures of those bits will follow when I can finally cast some without too many air bubbles. Therefore I have started on the wings rather than the normally accepted jumping-off point that is the cockpit. On the previous single-seater build I struggled to get an acceptable join on the leading edge inserts for the lower half of the wings. With this being an attempt at NMF I attempted to make this join better than on that build. To that extent I added some strengthening tabs to the insert and joined them to the wing half before joining the halves to try to get a flusher joint. I also had some homebrewed undercariage wells hanging around from the F.6 build, so the wings were suitably thinned to accept them. For the first attempt I managed to lose a bit of the flap coaming (no idea of the real term!) so used some plastic rod to build it back up again. And after all the glueing and clamping stuff went on..... Now having done the same again for the other wing (for some reason the plastic parts straight from the box were quite warped so hopefully we've cured that!), it was time to actually spite my face by cutting my nose off. Now I hadn't realised that I'd broken my razor saw blade, so that job will now have to wait until Paul at Little-Cars pings me some replacement blades in the post that I purchased at the weekend. So there we are, we've made a start and hopefully I won't mess this one up too much! So until next time, stay safe. Chris

Here's a late finisher from the BoB GB. Unfortunately not my best build, but by rushing on the last day to meet the deadline I only pushed completion further and further back. At the time I was taking some meds for a chest infection that gave me shakes like I've never had before, so we were painting some cracking camouflage patterns - only I was trying to paint straight lines!!! Here she is, she didn't get the final weathering I'd planned, I may pick her up again in the coming months and give her some belly oil stains etc but it's not a job for today! Well, that's that, I hear the siren call of the Interceptors GB drawing me in, so let's get examining the stash for something suitable. See you on the other channel, stay safe out there. Chris

Thanks for the kind words fellas. Unfortunately despite a really determined effort to make the deadline I just failed to get over the line, and everything I seemed to do on the last day pushed me 3 steps back rather than the intended 2 forward. This was due to some medication for my chest infection that caused shakes like I've never had before, so now they're out of my system and I've gone as far as I can mojo-wise I've finally called end-ex to this build. I'm not 100% happy with it but good enough is good enough this time. Anyways onwards and upwards to the next build, I hear the siren calls of the Interceptors GB calling me!! Until the next time, stay safe and well out there. Chris

Well the plan to build Do17 Z KG76 (F1+FS) during the BoB GB fell by the wayside as I'm struggling even to finish it's vanquisher, Flt Lt John Dundas's 609 Sqn BoB Spitfire R6922, by Saturday's deadline. Anyways this GB would be a perfect better late than never build eh????

Thanks Sidders, you're not wrong about the footy, being an East Londoner most of my old mates are "Happy Hammers". Christ I'm so glad I didn't make any cocky half-time phone calls!!!! The only upside of having a sore throat eh!? As an aside I only found out recently that Mathews CC the cricket club I played for/have been involved with for the best part of 30 years was named as an anagram of West Ham!! Thanks Stew, again not wrong. As a kid I've left White Hart Lane at 1-0 up with 5 minutes to go as my Dad wished to miss the traffic, only to see we lost 2-1 more times than I'd care to remember. It's something when as a long-term fan knowing that a 3-0 lead is never enough! Cheers for the kind words and kind wishes. Cheers for that Peter. Up here for thinking. down there for dancing eh (especially as Strictly is on in the UK at the moment, hence why I'm on the Laptop!)? Ah we can start with being crook. OK a call to the doctors on Monday morning got some antibiotics as although it'd do nothing for the cough and sore throat, it has sorted out my very frothy lungs after a full course. Early in the week I was still too poorly to do much, but we did pick up the "get to the end of the GB with a finished model" pace as the week went on. We started with another coat of RAF Dark Green or two with some lightened and greyened thinner coats of the same for some variation. And then with a flick of the feather boa we whipped of our skiddies................... OK there were a couple of touch ups needed where the masks were that bit too close to the demarcation lines, but were easily sorted. The clear parts were dipped in Future and left to dry thoroughly. They were then masked with Tamiya tape and a new 10A SM scalpel blade, yes of course I forgot there were masks in this boxing!!! After this they were CA gelled to the fuselage. While the transparancies were drying the airframe got a few coats of future too. The canopy rear got a coat of Flat Aluminium to match the airframe innards, and the windscreen a coat of my homebrewed Supermarine IG, Then this was coated with some more RAF DG, some more Future and now we have a shiny Spit ready for some stickers!!! Well that's where we are now. I'm sorting some resin casting now for @WV908 as he's building what appears to be my Spitfire back catalogue and being a clumsy oaf who expects to ruin most of the resin parts he uses, I tend to make a copy latex mould of quite a few bits that I think I may use again or screw up!!! Well I'm not 100% but it's footy again tomorrow. The super news is that I know the opposition's manager quite well as I've been making trophies for his team for the last 8 or so years. Unfortunately the first year I made them they were Under 11's so that means at 1030 tomorrow we kick off against a bunch of 18 year olds - whoopee doo!! I think the extra hour in bed as the 'clocks go back' tonight will be mighty welcome!!! (good job I'm not a Spoonerist Dyslexic as my apendages could end up very bruised and sore from that misunderstanding!!) So until the next and hopefully almost completed update, stay safe out there. Chris

Mate very jealous that you got to play the game let alone at a very high standard. For a 6 foot bloke I inherited my Dad's side of the family's short legs (my inside leg is 28" and his is 26!!), so whist I have legs like proverbial tree trunks (great for my style of football tackles) they don't cover much ground in a stride so whilst I'm sure I had talents I could never back them up with sufficient speed!!! Perhaps as @Tim Moff has noticed my RGJ associations that this was a Godsend when marching at 140 beats to the minute rather than the rest of the army's tick-tock pace!!! I wish the cough was sorting itself Stew, going to speak to the medicos tomorrow as the lungs are feeling good and frothy and I think I finally need some antibiotics! Thanks for the kind thoughts though. Anyways a tiny bit of progress again, This time I soaked the masks in water so as they conformed as best as paper can to the beautifully subtle curves of the Spitty. Then a first coat of thinned Tamiya RAF Green. And as I'm in clip, I'm going to light a fire and settle down to watch my football team Spurs take on the mighty Hammers and spend the rest of Sunday trying to feel better for work tomorrow! So until next time, stay safe out there. Chris

In the early 80's the UK got a new telly channel to take us up to a whopping great total of 4, and in the super imaginative British way it was named Channel 4! Now Channel 4 loved all things Aussie, so we got the Paul Hogan Show and we got Aussie Rules and I loved it. Having the surname of Cawthorne I had to support Hawthorne didn't I? Being a rugby lad at the time (pre-broken neck days you see!) I loved the extra level of brutality that Aussie Rules bought to the table. Must start watching it again now we have a gazillion channels, one must show it!!! Thanks for the kind words too Peter. I've got a much younger Glaswegian brother so his fitba' is of a far higher standard than mine to balance the football world out, however this old bugger loves his run out at the weekend. Win or lose we're on the booze is our club motto!!! Still got the cough a good week and a bit later though so beginning to think I might have preferred the Covid looking at how quick Trump got over it! Again thanks for the kind words Stew. Thanks Tim, and yes was a Falling Plate for 12 years, however despite my best intentions they were all TA years. I am very short sighted yet my only ambition in life as a youngster was to join the forces. After Sixth Form I tried to join the Queens but was repeatedly advised that as my prescription was the wrong side of the then limit I should re-badge to a Corps or join the TA to get in via the back door if I was to become a Regular Soldier. I therefore joined the TA Royal Green Jackets at Mile End, East London as I wanted to be a warrior and got a job in financial services to tread water until I could get in. At that time having your eyes lasered was an MDable condition, but was soon allowed but by that time my job had advanced far further than a Squaddies salary and I was loving the TA/work balance so much that I was content to be a weekend warrior. Unfortunately having a goodish job played against me for deployments as my unemployed platoon mates got the Bosnia, Falklands and Iraq deployments which as they weren't a full call-up would have meant my civvy job would not have been kept open for me if I went on one. In hindsight I should have taken the advice to join a Corps though!!! I've played up at Sudbury against some of their lower adult teams in the past, so yes small world. How long ago did you hang up your whistle and what leagues did you officiate in? Is your lad doing well there? Lastly what Battalion were you and when did you get out? Got lots of Para Reg mates, and I go to their boxing regularly, so could remind you to some of the old sweats! And if I hear "if you can't hack it, be a Jacket" one more time!!! Anyways on to the Spitty. The cough/cold has been a real pig again this week. OK against Doctors Mrs FC's advice I did play footy on Sunday, getting Man of the Match from my side for making numerous one on one saves and saving a penalty in an 8-0 defeat in the Essex Junior cup. It was kill or cure and I can advise that the cure bit wasn't particularly successful!! However it was less than double figures so again the team's heading in the right direction! Back on track Chris!!!!! The Spit's underside got a third coat of Tamiya sky and then a bit of post-shading with some lightened Sky to break up the solid colour. I do need to improve my photographic skills as the modulation is quite visible to the Mk1 Naked Eye. The underside got masked off, then using the paper masks available here, I applied an edge around the mask to give me an area to colour in like a good boy! I am lucky to have a laser engraver at work that allows me to cut these out cleanly and accurately. Using these outlines a couple of coats of Tamiya Flat Earth was my close enough call for RAF Dark Earth. I did firstly try to use Frisket film rather than normal paper, however I've had the film for some time so it had lost it's tacky so was no good. I will get some more film as the last time I used it a few years back it done real good!!!! In the final picture some lightened Flat Earth (by the scientific method of just adding a couple of drops of Tamiya Sky Grey per coat until it becomes too much of a contrast) has been mottled onto the panels. The keen eyed will pick up that my colouring went outside the lines on the port tailplane!! We're ready now to mask up again and start the process for the green. Anyways until the next time keep staying safe out there. Chris

Thanks Stew and Peter. Firstly the footy. Well my team lost its first game of the season 15-0, the next week it was 16-0 so we were onto game week 3 of Division 3 of the Colchester Sunday Football League and after a Saturday where it had rained non-stop, one of the highlights (if not the only!) was the chance to wear full studs for the first time this season - real football!! That's how few highlights there are to playing on an exposed windswept Clacton playing field in the pouring rain, early doors on a Sunday morning when the sane ones out there are snaffling their fry-ups or reading the Sunday papers in their nice warm beds with a steaming mug of tea and a comely wench beside them! Did I mention the wind and the rain, well it was there in spadeloads. Our servicemen will hit me with the "if it ain't raining, it ain't training" line, but my plan for this year's football was an easing into retirement, a gentle last couple of seasons before hanging up the boots and keeper's gloves and passing the baton onto a younger generation, so rain and wind near the Clacton seafront really wasn't top of the list of requirements! Now over the summer my team had failed to gain entry to the Norfolk and Suffolk Veterans League as our home ground is 500 yards over the Suffolk/Essex border in Lawford. This league is a lovely gentle league. You play once every 2 or 3 weeks, kick offs are at 2pm and it's an over 35's competition. As a result and to make sure we had some competitive football rather than just friendlies I joined us up to the Colchester Sunday League. Did you notice that the word veterans is missing from that league's name? We're just beginning to notice!! Anyways to cut a long story short we turned out against a team that last year were the Under 18's side of a good Clacton club. Now we didn't quite get as mashed as on weeks 1 & 2, but we still couldn't keep it under double figures as we lost 11-1 this time. Whoooooooa, hold the horses, shut the front door, did you spot that, yes we got a One!!!! The celebration for our first goal of the season at about 8-0 down was a thing of beauty, and all these teenagers just thought we were barking!!! Well 90 minutes of rain-bathing by the seaside did my old bones no good at all and come Monday night I was full of snotting, sneezing, coughing sore throats, so a couple of days bed rest (except to nip up to Ipswich for a COVID Test to rule that out) was in order and has now got me almost back on an even keel. Well I don't usually let colds stop me in my tracks, but this franchise from the ManFlu Corporation knew its stuff and knocked me sideways. Concentration was the hardest thing, hey what's that Daddy Long Legs doing over there, oh I'll go put the kettle on, the Chase is just starting!!!!! So in short bursts I got a fair bit of progress done, which is quite important as the GB clock is now ticking quite loudly (and everything seemed loud come to that!)! We'd got to buttoning up the fuselage, however a dry fit showed gaps at the wing roots so a sprue spreader was added just forward of the cockpit which cured that problem. Happy with that, TET (with the obligatory @Procopius "PC Gluey ThumbprintTM" as my sickboy mistake) was slathered on to join firstly the wing uppers to the fuselage, then the onepiece bottom halves added when dry. In retrospect I think I just made it harder for myself doing this, especially the mucking fuddle I was getting myself in just by being in clip! I realise I underestimated the quality of the fit (even with the spreader bar being required), so apologies to Mr Eduard for doubting you! When I make the earlier version from my double boxing I may actually listen to Mr Eduard and follow the destructions to the letter! As you can see I still had a fair bit of tidying up to do on the fuselage wing join so I am calling that an Own Goal!!! The primer went on well, but showed a few flaws, especially across the nose and the rear wings to underside joint. PPP galloped to our rescue, and some filling and resanding later we have.... This lead us gently on to the Modelling Marmite stage of the build where I pre-shaded the panel lines with Tamiya NATO Black. The Painting by Numbers started on the undersides using Tamiya Sky............... The sharp eyed will note that whilst the Starboard wing has only had it's first coat of well thinned Sky, the Port one (confusingly on the right as we're upside down in more ways than one!) has had it's second coat and this serves as a good illustration of the results at each of the stages the basic pre-shading technique gives. Coat 1 ...... Coat 2 ..... Now my gut feel is that a third coat will be sufficient before we get onto some post shading with some lightened and greyed Sky. Well, that's as far as I've got. The body is still Man-Flued, not quite to the eyeballs like Wednesday and Thursday, but recovering nicely. Unfortunately we have a Cup game on Sunday (or as my team will call it "The" Cup Game - if you ask my team about what happens in Round 2 of a Cup competition you'll get some blank looks for sure!) so I feel we may just be going into a Snot, Sneeze, Recover, Football, Repeat cycle. Still I love it!!! So until I break out the Tamiya Sky for the next thrilling episode, stay safe out there. Chris

Well, again a bit of glacial-speed progress but it sees the start of the fuselage buttoning up process. Plenty of big red clamp action saw us get to here with the front end secure............... As you can see the wing upper skins for the wheelwells were pre-shaded, given some Tamiya Sky and Flat Aluminium, Future washed for shadows and depth and then a brush coat of Galleria Matt Varnish finished them off. Again, ignoring the destructions like an Old Salt, I've added the wing tips at this stage to ensure a seamless joint on the most visable top surface. Hopefully we can whizz along a bit in the coming week! Anyways the cockpit looks like a cockpit now........... Not sure we'll get much progress tomorrow as I'm up in Clacton on Sea playing footy against another good side that's just come into the bottom division of our league as a new club. Lets hope as a goalkeeper I can keep it to under double figures for the first time this season. Here's hoping........ Until the next one, stay safe out there. Chris

Well, slowly slowly catchee monkey or so they say (they also say "Can you get a bleeding move on!!!"), is my excuse for having done very little since the last update. What exactly have we done I hear you ask................................. (it's the voices I tell you!!!)........... Well we gave everything a good Future wash (a few drops of black acrylic in some Johnsons Klear a la Roy Sutherland) to give the innards some depth and shadows and hopefully to neaten any edges. Obviously this leaves stuff shiny (well you'd want your money back if it didn't I suppose), so some Windsor & Newton Flat Galleria bought it back to the required dullness! Photos give it a semi-gloss look but with the Mk1 it looks flat enough. The Instrument panel got made up and then added to the forward bulkhead bit. The cockpit parts got assembled thus (not quite as per the destructions, but we're real modellers here eh?)..................... and a quick peek at the other side for completeness, just in case you thought I couldn't be bothered to do it.................... And then some PE seatbelts added.............. Well I think that just about leaves me ready to button the fuselage up, always a good milestone in a build so until next time, keep 'em peeled! Stay safe out there. Chris

Peter, I think I am going to add serials, I'm looking at 15th September and a trawl of other photos from around this dates show serials on the Spits from other Squadrons, and they are under the codes. I do like the idea of the tiny tiny serial on the tail, but as I'm going to use Xtradecal individual letters and numbers I think doing 2" serials is beyond my ken! I can find no photos of this airframe so let's just call it artistic licence. Life's been getting in the way the last couple of weeks, with only a few tiny bits of progress. However as Mrs FC is away at the M I Laws for the week I am pretty sure to get some bench time in (much more fun than the list of jobs I've been left to complete in her abscence!!), so should be cooking with gas by next weekend. Anyways let's have a look at the piddly amount I have done...................... The exhausts started off with a coat of Tamiya Flat Aluminium. The cockpitty bits and the wheel hubs and other stuff got a bit of Tamiya Flat Aluminium at the same time.................... I added some piping to the control column and the a dit of detail painting..... It looks far worse blown up on screen, or perhaps my Mk 1 eyeballs are just getting a bit fuzzy in my older age (I still play football in goal, but my Sunday side got proper spanked this morning 16-0, so perhaps the Keeper's Peepers don't quite work as well as they should, but that's another story!). I've not got to the Roy Sutherland Future Wash stage yet, so once applied that should cut in those edges a bit more neatly. I've used some Silicone to mould copies of some Cooper Details cockpit upgrades in order to produce home-brewed resin versions of the mechanical undercarriage selector and the Pipsqueak, and whilst at it I got carried away and also used the gun camera controls and the radio controls on the opposite fuselage wall. Now this is where I'm going to get shot down as I've only gone and used the radio control unit for the TR1133 unit rather than the TR9 that should be fitted. I know some BoB Spits had TR1133's, but not this one. I will take it off in the next sitting I promise! Can I ask the hive mind what the unit with the pipes diagonally running down the side of the seat is, that would fit in the place where I've put the TR1133 unit and sans pipes is included in the Eduard plastic? https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/mausab28/DX2004111120cockpit20details20D45020001-C_zps147858e3.jpg&key=bcbe839fbd9de8c5e350705dfccfa19e382f2551525688e36adbeb11a9ff36a2 Anyways with a bit more detail painting here we are as of tonight....... The exhausts got a drybrushing with Gunmetal and then Tamiya Red Brown (also used on the seat back over Humbrol Matt Leather), and just need some dark iron stuffed up their pipes and a wash and they're done. I've only gone and lost the morse key unit and the spare sight bulbs that I had primed, and if I can't successfully fight the Carpet Monster for them back then I may have to half-hinch the ones from the other kit in my boxing (which as an early hand-pumped undercarrige version will have them in the place that Eduard moulded them, rather than their revised postion after the fitting of the mechanical selector so will not need the extra ones kitted and not used in the box 's instructions. Anyways that's enough for tonight so until the next thrilling instalment take care out there. Chris

Peter/Steve, welcome to the madhouse. Glad to have you along for the ride. Steve, I did link a OTS build of this airframe by @Phil Lewisinto my original WWII Section question but I'll repeat it for those who've not seen it. Kes, thank you for this, the SAM issue has arrived and although I can find no direct mention of R6692 yet, it does give the styles of underwing markings applied by each of the MU's Spits passed through before reaching the Squadrons. Tim, going from this photo of another 609 machine I'm going with PR o T on the starboard for mine. Still have found no photos of the actual airframe so it's just educated guessing for this one (hopefully a step up from a what-if!). Will drop in on your build in the forseeable to see what I can nick how you're getting on. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/handdaf/dorset/bd1.jpg Here's a link to the website the photo came from too. http://dorset.hampshireairfields.co.uk/warmpics.html The jury is still out for serials. I will apply them but no idea if over or under yet. It really doesn't help us future modellers that they were either not applied or censored at the time!!!! Have made some more progress, again in my very own, two forward three back style, but as I've spent the evening writing a Covid Risk Assessment for my Sunday League footy team, I'm all key-boarded out for now! Stay safe you all. Chris