Fatcawthorne

Thanks Bruce, yeah it was a bit special. I'm not a very star-struck person but this was a good meet-up. Thanks Gazza. Just got to find some space to display it once the Chrimbo tree gets relagated to the loft!

As I tell Mrs FC, “it’s not the size of the wand that’s important; but the magic it contains!”, so whilst your squadrons may be small they are most definitely perfectly formed! If you spent more time building kits than gabbling on off topic in such an erudite manner then we’d desert you in our droves. I understand that inexorably connected state of marriage/depression/parenting/work only too well, so keep looking after yourself as well as you look after us out here in BM Land. It takes a while (and definitely not whilst you’re in the early days like you are) to realise that it’s not you, it really is down to all those other illegitimate folk out there, whether they’re ones you love or not! OK bit serious there for a NYD, your output was first class and your threads a joy so keep it up mate! Happy New 2020 too. Chris

Well not the most prolific of years was 2019. Life, the universe and everything else it seems did its best to sidetrack me from my "happy place"! We got a Recce Spit (PR Mk.1G) over the line from 2018 for starters..... Followed shortly by Airfix's 1/48 Blenheim.... This build was littered with own goals but now that it's been on the shelf a while I'm far happier with it (and probably with myself too which is the real nub of the story!)..... Well will wonders ever cease, I mean finishing an entry in a GB - whatever next!!! I built Revell/Hasegawa's 1/48 Sabre F.4 for the 50's Nato v Warsaw Pact GB using Red Roo's slatted wings...... We had a bit of a false start in the Phantom STGB, another build littered by yet more own goals, so we'll try and get that one into the 2021 edition! A mojo restorer from that and for me a bit of a Blitzbuild due to a pressing deadline was my Iron Maiden 1/32 Spitfire. And then it went off to a good home..... Now with 10 or so days left of December to go, I picked up a casualty from the SoD and finally limped her over the line today...... Well, I'm off to catch the last half hour of 2019 with Jools and his Hootenanny, so all the best for a new decade to you good folks out there. Happy New Year, Chris

I build mine by looking for as many sub-assemblies as possible, assembling them un-primered, and when I cannot add any more parts to that little section I then prime with a Halfords rattle can. I can usually find a little hole somewhere (or drill a hole into an unseen surface) to insert a cocktail stick to hold the sub-assembly whilst blasting and whilst it is drying. This can then have the top colours/detail painting added to it before assembling further. On modern CAD designed kits (which tend to be the ones with the tightest tolerances) I usually mask off any mating surfaces with tiny strips of Tamiya Tape, cut fron a wider roll with a metal ruler and a sharp scalpel blade, before priming/painting. Items such as landing gear legs or doors I leave attached to the least visable sprue gate, clipping off all the others as far away from the part as possible giving room to allow the cleaning up of the piece. I also then cut the main sprue around that last gate so I have a mini sprue with only the parts I want on it that I hold with a peg whilst priming and painting. This allows as much of the part to be pained as possible so that when ready to attach then the only touch up should be in a difficult to see area. Hopefully you can see what I mean in the picture below. Hope this helps you find "your way" to build, as there are no absolutes in as far as the right way or wrong way to do this. What works for you will always be your right way. Good job on the Airbus and "Welcome back to the Madhouse!"; if you weren't obsessive and a hoarder beforehand, you soon will be! Chris

Now that's not a bad testiment to 2019. Great subjects, with a great finish and a show-stealing diorama to display them on. Roll on 2020 and Come on the U's!!!

Well as it's New Year's Eve still in the UK, no doubt many BMers are planning for their night of excess and partying but somebody has to keep the ship afloat eh? So instead of nipping down to Tescos for a dozen tinnies of IPA and a couple of packs of Rennies, I've been finishing off my oft-stalled Airfix Defiant build for your delectation. Well somebody had to take one for the team didn't they!!? Now this build started off as L7009, the "Cock o' the North" from 141 Sqn, except like the "cock o' the south-east" that I can be at times I applied the wrong camouflage pattern, (it's a 50/50 choice so there's a 90% chance of stuffing it up as we all know!). Needing a victim that was wearing a Scheme 'A' outfit to the party, I consulted my many references and found a picture of the machine I wanted to replicate. It was a 264 Sqn machine, L7005 PS-X. OK OK, despite all my good intentions I managed to find conflicting evidence for this kite's serial number, with the majority of my books giving it a serial of L7006, so that's what I initially marked it up as. @AndyL, like a knight in shining armour, rode to the rescue pointing out that the Sqn ORB gave PS-X as L7005 so I waxed off the 6's and put some 5's in their place. Anyways if you want the peruse the WIP it's here, but if not then it's straight onto the piccies for those with those "ooh shiny shiny" afflictions!!!!! So here's to wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2020. Stay safe out there. Chris

I wouldn't fo that far Andy, but I am happy with what's gone on so far. I trust you so I have removed the 6's and 5's are now on so L7005 is hot to trot!!!! Anyways after our identity swap a good Florying got us to here....,. ..... which was then wiped back when dry with a damp bit of kichen roll, the last couple of touch ups made and the bits that had fallen off were stuck back on, an exhaust stain misted on and then a topcoat of W&N Matt Varnish before unmasking the clear parts (oh and some more touch ups resulting from that!!!). Therefore as it's New Year's Eve I think we can now call this one done (ok need to put an aerial wire between the posts but will wait for the varnish to completely go off before we do that), get it into RFI and therefore the Yearbook without being caught out cheating, phew!!!! So until we select the next unwilling virgin for sacrifice I'll bid you all adieu for a bit and will see you on the other side of a new decade.... Chris

Anyways, a bit of a thread resurrection. I was bemoaning in another thread that I had unfinished kits queueing up to get onto the SoD, (You can't come in here in those, they're trainers!!!), so I thought I'd better extract the digit and do something about it. I had ground to a halt before stickering up the Defiant as I wan't sure if all airframes had the prominent walkway markings present on the kits decal sheet. Now Having a goodly number of Reference books on the Defiant, I spotted on the cover of this...... .... showing that machines from the same squadron had them so that was good enough for me to release the log jam. Annoyingly going through references has also thrown up some conflicting info re the serial number of PS-X that I wish to model (just when you thought it was easy eh?!!). Now the above publication includes a photo of PS-X that it captions as L7006 rather than L7005....... .... and it then has an article on L7005 as an airframe under replication which you can see is PS-B.... Now I only hear good things about Dulcimus (and I know @Troy Smith's famous signature strapline holds true) but their profile of PS-X is L7006...... ..... and to throw more fuel onto the fire, this publication also has a similar Photo to the Brew one above (in fact the author credits Brew) but captions it L7005. Now in the flesh the last picture is the clearest and although a bit indistinct, by using a loupe I think I make out the serial to be L7006 so that is what I am going for. @AndyL I know it's my model but are you comfy with that rationale? Anyways with all that nit-picky stuff pushed aside in my tiny brain I could get on with some stickering. Now where was the next almighty clusterfeck coming from? There you go it's here already..... I used the kit decals for the majority of markings bar the fuselage roundels and the individual codes and serials. Now using the photos above to scale out the required size of fuselage decal I worked out that in 1/48 a roundel of about 29mm was required. Searching through my 1/48 decal stash was fruitless, but I found an Xtradecal 1/72 sheet that matched the required dimentions to a tee. Oh goody, well until they touched water that is and disintigrated! We also had a more recent 1/48 Xtradecal sheet from which I used the 49" roundel which although 2-3mm underscale on the model is still far larger than the kit offering. OK one bullet dodged. The Airfix kit decals all applied beautifully I have to say, conforming extremely well to the panel lines and other bumps and bits on the surface, helped with MicroSol, but when it came to using the individual X decal from another new Xtradecal MSG code letters sheet they silvered like nobody's business. I know a couple of flame wars started in the chat section over poor quality form Xtradecal, however these code decals really weren't up to scratch. and to a lesser extent... (it looked far worse to the Mk1 eyeball)..... They still remained resolutely silvered after many applications of Microsol, and just as I was contemplating the nuclear option of "waxing" them off with tape to replace them, I came up with the idea of using boiling water on them having pricked them good and proper (a la jacket spud) with a Swan Morton 10A blade. The next leap of faith was to use a kitchen sponge to apply and hold the boiling water on the decals as by holding the Scotchbrited end I only inflicted relatively minor burns on my fingers rather than the far more serious burns I was expecting from a cloth! Anyways the scalding method seems to have worked and to celebrate I added the L7006 serials. Monkeys!!!!! I can see the port L has had a wobble from this photo. Hopefully not too far set to undo, so I'll nip down to the kichen and sort out once I've pressed the send button. Anyways what is needed next is another coat of Future, a bit of weathering and assuming I can find the box with the turret in, a little final assembly then we can call this done and just squeak it into 2019's Yearbook. Anyways, until the next thrilling episode, I'll bid you all adieu..... Chris

I didn't initially have plans to do a WIP as virtually on the day that Revell released their Iron Maiden boxing of their MkII Spit, my good buddy Mark told me that Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris was playing a gig in Colchester with his side project British Lion. Now the gig was on December 19th and as Mark is very good buddies with Steve I knew I'd be invited along for a meet up and a chat. Last time British Lion toured Colchester I organised a trip down to Merville Barracks for Steve where he was well hosted and entertained by 2 PARA's Corporal's Mess before the gig, but with 19/12 being after stand down and the start of Christmas block leave I had to come up with another idea to help him remember Colchester and hopefully come back again in the next couple of years. The catch, well I had about 3 weeks to complete this if I was going to be able to present it at the gig. There was a very brief WIP once I realised that I was on course to complete this on time....... Anyways without further ado I present you with the Aces High Spitfire, ably piloted by no other than Eddie!!! You may notice a tiny speck of brass on the armoured windscreen frame, this is my nod to the spent cartridge case embedded there on the original cover of the Aces High Single and for our Sea-Hat friends following is not "the golden rivet"!!!! https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTDrm9AsqCcSq2xTtRFHa7YkV6v8_73XEoApLvl__REjeDaARhH&s Anyways, here's the good home that the model went off to.....

I grew up in Chingford for most of my musically formative years so missed out on the Colly scene, my goto was Turntable in Chingford Mount Road. What was Andy's like? My Brother in Law grew up in Sheffield and frequented Branson's (First Clang of the night!) first shop and doesn't he rub my nose in it. I was in the Legends Bar being weighed-in for my game in my underpants when Rashford scored, so I thought the groans were for my physique!! I love Eddie, just about caught the Beast tours but remember the Powerslave and Somewhere in Time Eddies that bit better. (Beer and the 12/13 year old mind didn't quite mix as well as I thought it might, must've added some tolerance to it by 14/15!). Have you seen the latest Maiden/West Ham kits releases? https://musicglue-images-prod.global.ssl.fastly.net/iron-maiden-global-merchandise-uk/product/iron-maiden-x-west-ham-home-shirt?u=aHR0cHM6Ly9tdXNpY2dsdWUtdXNlci1hcHAtcC0zLXAuczMuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9vcmlnaW5hbHMvNzlhNTIwMDUtYWMyZi00ZmU4LTgwMWYtNTY1NTJmODAzZWVj&mode=contain&width=700&v=2 I wish I'd collected the singles, picked up a box set of Irom Maiden singles and oddities (including the inimitable "Listen with Nicko" tracks) on CD which get the odd outing every now and then. Well we almost all loved Mrs T at the time (Unless you had a cycle lamp riveted to your hat that is), it's only now we see the folly of selling the family silver. They were ahead of their time as usual! Anyways, this morning I called this one done so you can have your wish Rob. The sharp-eyed might note that I managed to crack the canopy, which if it was my own build I'd send this to the SoD until I'd got a replacement, but for this one needs must..... And then I took her to work, mounted her on a base and added some engraving............... It does help being an engraver as that'd have cost a frickin' fortune from Timpsons!!!! And Lastly I had to give it away boo hoo.................. Well not really.... Steve is a very good friend of a good friend of mine (Mark on the right below), but I took him to Merville to meet 2 Para a couple of years back but as the Army is on leave at the moment, (apart from the Spearhead lads from 2 out in Afghan), I couldn't find anyone available to host him this time so had to go for another approach, hence this build....,. For those that have done their time in green skin in Colly recently yes that was Yates's, and with the Garrison being on leave it was the emptiest pub in the town!! Anyways have a few more shots that I can post up for an RFI thread which as I've just got in from seeing British Lion give a cracking performance at the local Arts Centre might just appear in a couple of days now. Happy as a dog with two.... Catch you all laters, Chris

Well jealous there. Defo have the albums on Vinyl but was never much into singles at the time!!! You off up to Old Trafford tonight? I'm playing Fat Football at the stadium tonight and by all accounts the car park's pretty full from all those who went up on the coaches earlier. Anyways, the Microsol dis it's job... We got a coat of Future to seal in all that lovely goodness and lots of little extremeties got CA'd on..... And then just when you think you've got it looking as good as it can get, we do this............... Flory Grime, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Well, that'll get wiped back when dry in a couple of hours, we'll add some gun and exhaust stains and then some oily bits whilst tickling his belly, stick on a few glass bits, a matt varinsh and voila bish bash bosh I think I'll be calling it done. Well, the deadline's tomorrow night at the pub, so 1) I've got to get it to the pub in one piece and 2) hope my bud keeps it in one piece 'til he gets home. A tall order! Come on the U's............... Chris

One wiggly worm session later and we have this.... First coat of Tamiya RAF Green...... More Green, and some Green and Sky Grey for modulation...... .... and the big reveal...... OK so there's a few touch ups needed but for me this is a Blitzbuild so I'll do those once the stickers are on. To prepare for stickers we had a couple of coats of Pledge floor wax (and for the clear parts too) to get us all shiny shiny. Well I got the stickers on in record time earlier this evening but we're in the MicroSol crinkly decals phase as I type so will get some snaps of that progress once they've dried properly. OK 3 days and counting, pretty sure we're going to make the deadline OK now. Until the next update, stay classy BM Land! Chris

Just a quick update as I'm spending more time building this than recording it. Will be presenting this to my buddy in exactly one week now. The undersides got more coats of sky and got masked up. The first coats of Tamiya Flat Earth went down over the pre-shading..... A couple more coats and then some FE lightened with various amounts of Sky Grey for variation later........... Let that dry and it's blu tac wiggly worms time - hurrah!!! Right it's almost time for the first exit poll so I'm going to see what Jezza Vine's got to say for himself. It doesn't actually matter which party wins though - the Government always gets in!! Have a good one and I'll catch up when there's some non-political greens in my future! Chris

There goes the siren that warns of the air raid There comes the sound of the guns sending flak Out for the scramble, we've got to get airborne Got to get up for the coming attack Well the mojo has taken a godawful battering this year, I've now got projects queueing up to get onto the SoD, (sorry you can't come in in those - they're trainers!), and builds queueing up for stickering on the markings production line that was formerly known as my kitchen. I hoped to relight the fire with an undocumented build as my last two WiP's have stalled, so I quietly sat down in the corner and got on with an Airfix 48th Lightning, which although substantially well on its way also has hit the buffers. How to cure this malaise I ask? (and it is a genuine but not rediculously serious malaise in the scheme of things; I'd been whingeing about shingles and feeling run down in my previous WIPs and blood tests have confirmed virtually a lack, as opposed to a deficiency, in my Vitamin D levels so I've been put on a horse-tablet dose of that for the next 6 months to see if it can lift my mood and stop me feeling so unwell all the time. Oh and because I'm self-employed and work virtually every waking hour, I also got prescribed some regular breaks and holidays so lets start taking them regularly too!) The news that Revell were releasing an Iron Maiden themed boxing of their 1/32 Spitfire II made my eyes light up with joy though. Having been about 5 years too young to see them in their infancy at one of my regular goto teenage pubs, The Ruskin Arms in East Ham, I jumped onto their rollercoaster ride in the early 80's, seeing them at Hammersmith Odeon and Wembley with regularity plus a trip up to Donnington for Monsters of Rock shortly after passing my driving test. OK now I have to see them at the O2, which to me has as much soul and life as Sainsbury's bacon, but it's still Maiden! Now on their last tour the opening song Aces High was accompanied by a 90% scale model of a Spitfire; OK a bit of an ambiguous mark of Spitfire and one that would keep rivet-counters awake all night sweating, but it was a Spitfire. As the on-stage version was what I wanted to model I hatched a plan to use the decals and the Eddie pilot figure (Eddie is the Iron Maiden mascot) from the Revell boxing with the Hobby Boss Spitfire Vb I had in the stash and that had been panned for it's rear fuselage shape issues amongst many others. Now the stage Spit has a 4 blade prop, two early style oil coolers but no radiators, 20mm wing cannon and a frickin' monster as a pilot so I couldn't see how HB's facsimile would detract from the Spittiness of this build, but once I had started building the kit up I looked at Revell's painting instructions and found that the stage Spits didn't have a genuine camo pattern applied (despite well-researched serials and codes), and that has proved too much for me; so I am now decorating this as the Mk 1 from the Aces High single cover. OK I know it's a Vb (sort of) and it's going to be painted as a Mk.I but from this day hence we're not going to speak of this again - got it! http://warbirdsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/single12_aceshigh_b.jpg Another piece of the jigsaw as to why this is just a fun build with no hang ups is that I am building this as a gift for a friend who I am seeing on 18 December, so timings are tight. Also my buddy is not that much of a plane geek as to notice, despite one of his other besties being an airline pilot (hopefully he doesn't show it to him!). I hadn't planned to run a WIP for this but now that I'm ahead of my schedule I think I can do some mini-updates to show what I've done so far. The boxes and stickers just because we should........ Now I never ever ever ever ever put pilots in my kits, well not since years back, before I discovered Brett Green, then BM and hopefully proper and better modelling, so figure painting is not my forte. I started the construction/painting with the cockpit and with Eddie himself. I am well chuffed with how Eddie came out btw, even if self-praise is feint praise. Although not getting quite the attention my normal 'pits get I'm happy with this for a quick and dirty build. All painted with Tamiya Acrylics and given a Future wash. OK as we're in a rush here's where we're at now. Fuselage is buttoned up, wings attached with "special aeroplane glue" (thank you Taaj), seams sorted, Halfords rattle cans rattled, some black lines to infuriate folk and the first coat of Tamiya Sky for good measure. Anyways 8 days to go and I think we're on track. Anyways it's time to Run to the Hills (or more like climb the carpet hill to Bedfordshire) so until the next one, be good...... Chris

Hope you checked the front wheel nuts were tight beforehand else you'd go over the handlebars as the forks hit terra firma catapulting you into a concrete lamp post right next to a very long queue at a bus stop!! Ask me how I know, on second thoughts don't as the memory and the embarassment are still too painful!

I am concerned that this appears to be bullying a member who from his introduction is a 16 year old schoolboy. Please stop as this is unacceptable. The Member's wish list is to post what you want somebody to buy you for Christmas so I can't see how Adam's list of what he would love Airfix to produce in the future is relevant to what he wants Santa to leave in his sack. Before we go about correcting other folks innocent posts, in what is a fun thread (and a BM tradition), where we all get a bit giddy with our speculations, please at least know what you're talking about. Sorry to rant, but I found @Adam Poultney's treatment unacceptable amd I hope it hasn't put you off our Forum Adam.

Mike, you're a diamond, pun intended, and I've been faffing around trying to turn Omega into "Oh my god" as my way of expressing thanks but I failed miserably. PM has winged its way to you a while back (that's how long I've been working on the "Oh my God" bit!).

You're spot on Mike, I copied the decals and cut out one of the flashes and as you say it's about 2mm too tall. I have made a few copies of the flashes so next step is to get the scalpel out and see if a few nips and tucks can get it to the right size. Something that also has struck me is that the white space around the Omega symbol could be too large so perhaps making the white diamond smaller too could be the key here. Again will have a play and will report back. Oh yeah and as you can see in the above, the Tamiya tape has again reacted with the Gunze Aqueous paints, despite a goodly amount of drying time so yet another rub back and more EDSG to try and fix things. Chris

Thank you John for the kind words. @FortyEighterI've not found yet that the Xtradecal tail flash is in fact too large, but as their placement instructions are totally wrong and by following them slavishly like wot I stupidly did I ruined the tail. Until I stick it in the right place I'm not sure but will take your word for it and look out to see what I can do to fix the issue. There should be an EDSG "stripe" left between the flash and the fin leading edge as per this picture, not a red leading edge as per the destructions. https://i.imgur.com/kPDZhng.jpg I've got another set from Mike at MJW Models @Mikemx and I'm masked up and just about to repaint the RWR panels before Klearing it ready for more stickers. I will report back and show 'n' tell the class once I've re-stuck 'em! Catch you all later. Chris

Thanks exdraken, the way I've been feeling for the past couple of months I'm pretty sure I missed most of it too!! Well as it happens I had put it in the wrong place on the port side anyways, so am a bit pigged off with myself. Made a bit of a horlicks of getting off the decal too as noticed it well after applying it. All in all I'm not too chuffed with progress at the moment as I'm rushing to finish, and with not being 100% am making mistake after mistake. I think I'm calling this a wave-off on the ramp, so "Bolter, Bolter, Bolter"!!! Here's where we got to: Well as I mentioned the first of the mojo-sapping errors was painting my black oblong in the wrong place and then applying the sticker on it. I only noticed when applying the serial on that side then had to take drastic action with very hot towels to remove it (which also made the Klear coat look like a disaster zone and I thought I'd killed the paintjob for good - I'm so glad Klear can self heal!!!). Adding to this more decals had to be removed on the tail as despite having posted lovely clear colour photos of this bird's rear end, and having studied probably hundreds of photos of this and its other Squadron mates, I stupidly slavishly followed Xtradecals markings guide and put the two big red Omega tail stickers in the wrong place! My fault but no thanks to you Xtradecals!!! I knew it looked wrong at the time, especially with the placement of Ark's 'R' identifier, but as I said I was rushing - doh! Now I'd given the other decals some MicroSoling so when I noticed the tail error, I was so careful not to disturb any softening decals whilst removing the offending items. OK so I never touched any of them, but excess MicroSol had pooled around the port intake and as that's where I was gripping I left a horrible thumbprint in the melted and softened Klear coat. At least this will be hidden by the splitter plate. Well removing the tailstickers didn't go without a hitch. One side came off fine, but the starboard side was having none of it, causing the decal to split into loads of bits that were stuck good and which only came off after being rubbed with the backside of a scalpel blade taking a fair bit of the paint finish with it. I tried the ancient Hasegawa kit decals but as expected they had deteriorated over time and disintergrated into too many bits for me to be happy using them. Ah well, we still had the Aeromaster set (even if they didn't have the US unit crest Zap, as I'd saved them), but as soon as they hit the water they jaggedly split in two or three pieces each and trying to jigsaw them together whilst keeping a clean join edge was proving very difficult. As I still had the kit decals, which were a good colour match, I used parts of them to try and patch over the joins but it looked like a dog's dinner. I'm not happy so I'm going to strip the fin again, repaint and will buy in another set of Xtradecals and will ignore their instructions in order to put them in the right place this time. And finally to compound my miserable luck I knocked over my bottle of surgical spirit that I use to clean my airbrushes, covering the pre-painted undercarriage doors with paint-stripper! Well sorry to bail out on you @PhantomBigStu right at the death but I'm not in the right state to push this one over the line. It will get finished, so @Mike could I ask you to move this to the WIP thread so I have to put my money where my mouth is! Stu, thanks for hosting this and again, sorry to let you down. TTFN, Chris

Mike, that's really kind and thank you, however I bit the bullet and also bought the same Xtradecals as you used. You're right though making any real progress when you feel like a bag of spanners is tough. Everything I seem to touch is still going wrong and with the amount of touch ups this has had so far I'm sure the extra thickness of the paint means we're now building a 1/43 'Toom! The gloss white from Mr Hobby Aqueous just seems to never fully dry, I've left it 3 or 4 days and then as soon as you touch it it leaves a fingerprint. Pretty fed up with it all I have to say. At least I now now what my least-favourite paint is now! Anyways I have now added the front and centre canopy pieces, faired in with PPP and swearing (counter-intuitively a harmonious pairing!) and the EDSG has been made good. Here's where we are now, I've also looked at some colour pictures of XV590 and it appears the Yanks painted out the ROYAL in black before adding the COLONIAL so some Tamiya Nato Black was masked off to represent this. https://i.imgur.com/kPDZhng.jpg If we're going to have a chance to finish this by Sunday we need to get a bit of a stride on now. I'm sick of touch ups so we're calling this as good as it gets and will be Futuring the airframe tomorrow morning ready for some stickers. Whilst waiting for the white to dry I've done a bit more work on XV590's FGR.2 younger sibling, which was an old old build that I stripped back with Mr Muscle and repainted using current techniques. Not one for this GB but it should be following the Navy kite over the line pretty soon. Well I'm off for a good cry after my beloved football team were humiliated in the Champions League by Bayern Munich this evening - Ah the joys of being a Spurs fan! See you all tomorrow, Chris

Well you've definitely put some clear water between us now Mike, and wthout shirking on the quality. She's looking very good now. I've got a load of Phantoms in my future and have plenty of Eduard etch belts and cockpit sets so may go that route on the next one just for giggles seeing how spot on yours looks, despite having wasted so much of my GB time casting resin copies of the Aires pit!. Have to say I'm not convinced I'd handle rub-down transfers quite as well as you are though. Keep plugging, almost there.

A big thankyou to both @PhantomBigStu and @Enzo Matrix for proposing and agreeing a deadline extension to this GB. Like many of the other GB'ers here life has conspired to throw as many lemons in our way and although as some of our more positive folk tell us, that when life deals us a lemon - make some lemonade, the solution as far as I can see it is to add them to the stress-busting G&T's!!!! If I'd modelled at hyper-speed I might just have made the original deadline but quality would definitely have sufferred, and as everything I seem to touch lately seems to either break or fall off (haven't had a wee for a week just to be on the safe side!!!) less is definitely more at the moment for me. Well we got the top coat colours looking more or less just as I wanted them...... .... and the masked off the exhaust areas for some Mr Hobby Super Metallics action. Super Titanium, Dark Iron and Stainless were the weapons of choice here..... The metallics got a buffing with a cotton cloth before being unmasked to avoid spreading the metallics to the next block of colour. Even with being very carefulI I still managed to get metallicky fingerprints on the main colours, plus some overspray on the bottom colours from touching up the leading edges' EDSG, and that will need some attention next. Speaking of attention, the first metallic coats on the stabs were Vallejo Dark Aluminium which usually sprays wonderfully, but this time round was a pig! This got cleaned off with surgical spirit before electing to go with the Mr Hobby Super Metallics (and order a new needle, nozzle and cap combo for my H&S Ultra) but this cleaning down has caused a fair bit of seepage under the masking which will need to be sorted. Well I still haven't fully shaken off the effects of this shangles attack and even though the sores are gone I still feel mentally and physically wiped out (enough to pull out of yesterday's footy so I must feel poorly!) but I'm pleased with what we've done so far and even more pleased that we've got another week to play with. Until the next time..... Chris

You're well on the way now Mike, and it's looking pretty smart. Going to keep an eye on those Wolfpack improvements as an idea for future builds. We might end up like the Brownlee brothers crossing the line at the same time!!

Well, don 't know how we're fitting any modelling into real life at the moment but we're making some glacial progress despite it. Tonight, I'm taking son #1 and his girlfriend to the O2 to see Muse as it was his 18th birthday on Friday. Looking forward to seeing his face when he has to pay £7.50ish for a pint of beer!!! Therefore I thought I'd better update where we've got to before I jump on the train to London. I added some "vanes" to the discharge ducts on the rear of the intake splitter plates which I hope will make a significant difference to the finished kit. I've cleaned them up a bit more and then prepped them to make resin copies as I'd like to be able to use these improvements on my future 'Toom builds. I've also bought a cheapo set of close up lenses that fit my camera's filter rings. For the pennies spent I'm quite happy with the improvement in detail shown. Well, the underside white got masked off, which was not viable after the 24 hours that I had hoped for, but it got left for another full day as the gloss white was still tacky and the Tamiya Tape was leaving marks in the surface. Halfords grey primer was splashed on the top surfaces....... The dreaded pre-shading was done with Tamiya Flat Black and the nose radome painted in their semi-gloss black. My airbrushes are having a bit of a 'mare at the moment. I have an H&S Ultra, a Sparmax 35 and a Badger 360 and all seem to be spattering a bit more than usual. I have tried adjusting the compressor pressures and my thinning ratios (down to 1:1 even) and it doesn't want to fix things. The only significant change to my set up recently was the removal of an oil trap from the air output circuit as it had ceased to be airtight so the compressor was always having to work to fill the tank to make up for this. However I can't see this causing spatter as there is still a decent moisture trap in the circuit. Any thoughts from the hive? Then we gave a first coat of Mr Hobby Aqueous EDSG............... Well it turns out that the support band tonight are one of my son's girlfiend's favourite bands so I've inadvertantly done good, but it means they don't want to miss it so we've brought forward leaving time to be sure, so I'm going to knock it on the head and go and get ready. Catch up later, have a good one. Chris