Fatcawthorne

You had to go and say it Col, you just had to go and say it!!!! Just when you think you're there, the flick up fairies descend on you like a ton of feathers!!!! @Biggles87 John, did your wings set come with any instructions as mine didn't? If not it's time to break out the brown crayons and we'll write our own instruction sheet. As we saw before, the undercarriage legs got added, we did a bit of stickering and all good so far. We even had the temerity to attach the wheels to the undercarriage legs. We didn't have a tail-sitter so we're winning at life - or so I thought! The next part of my build involved adding the undercarriage doors. Now the kit main doors are a smidge too wide for the Red Roo hole, so they both got a tiny tiny trim to make them fit. No alarm bells ringing yet, this is proper modelling eh?! Turned the Sabre right ways up and we've got a tail-sitter. Now two tiny doors on the same plane as the MLG legs can't turn this into a tail sitter can it; cue much head-scratching. I get my nose down and dirty onto the workbench and I see the Sabre isn't resting on 3 wheels but on the nose wheel and the points of the doors. Like Mr Morcombe's erstwile sidekick, our legs are too short (don't know about hairy though)! Now with hindsight it should have been pretty obvious that the Red Roo wheel wells were deeper at the MLG attachment points than the kit parts but spotting that the first time round was way above my pay-grade. Here's the kit parts: and here's the Red Roo well............. My measuring stick told me that the kit attachment sat .75mm below the level of the wing and that the same point on the Red Roo one was at the heady depths of 3.5mm down. Therefore I deduce that the MLG legs need to be lengthened by 2.75mm. I have used Albion Alloys concentric tubes and rods for these. Not sure of the sizes but the outer looks right and the inner tube and the cental rod all fight tightly together. I removed the attachment from the top of the MLG leg with my trusy razor saw, then drilled through it to take the rod. I then drilled out the main leg and stuck a length of rod in it with CA. The 2.75mm plug of the two outer tubes were cut by rolling them with a Stanley knife on the cutting mat and they were then CA'd to the rod. The attachment lug was also re-attached and the rod trimmed up nicely. So we went from the one on the left (yes I deliberately snapped the wheel off that one rather than gently prising it off like the other one as I love more brass rod reinforcing work, grrrrrrrrrr!!!!).... to the one on the right.......... Have done both now, plus added a brass axle for the weel on the second leg. Ok will re-paint these later and see how things stand when they're re-attached. Blimey O'Reilly what a palava! Gotta love aftermarket with no instructions! All the best and catch up soon. Chris

Like that Duncan and will shamelessly use it in future as if it was my own!!! Cheers fellas. John, I've gone natural metal for the self-same reasoning as I've only seen close ups on NMF Sabres too. Roll on the Sharkmouth GB. I may have to find the male version of this (coveniently in Rifles green too!) to wear for the duration of that one. https://www.artistshot.com/bape-shark-mouth-only-ladies-fitted-t-shirt-p-7537129 Unfotunately still in the land of the jellyfish as far as the eye is concerned. It doesn't hurt so much now, more like a dull ache so must be on the mend! Wel,l as I said in my previous post I was off to Sheffield for the weekend via a detour to Leicester to look at my stolen Scimitar that was up for sale on eBay. It was in a beautiful condition. On Saturday I posed as an interested eBay buyer but found that the present owner was totally innocent (and a really nice bloke too), having bought the car at a classic car auction in January and then got ill and as he had a stable of Alfas and Maseratis his SWMBO had decreed one must go, and my Scimmy was the bottom of the pile. Having viewed and copied all the seller's paperwork and reported back to the police on what I'd seen, I went back the next day to tell him who I really was (it had been strange talking about myself in the third-party first time as the seller had told me about the previous owner who had owned it for 27 years - it was difficult not to just shout "I know, it was me!!!!!") and to get him on side to help nail the real culprit. He had mentioned that he'd paid the indemnity premium as well as the auction commission at our first meeting, so I knew he'd be able to reclaim his monies too. The long and the short of it is that it looks very likely I'm getting my car back and in good nick too. Am already planning the driving holiday in Northern Spain but I do know I shouldn't really be counting my chickens yet! Anyways got back from the outlaws at tea time, having bought back my school-age son but leaving the eldest and my SWMBO up there for a few days more R&R. That gave me a free evening and after having caught up on the weekend's Britains Got More Talent, (I cannot abide Britains Got Talent but in the follow up show on ITV2 Steven Mulhern remorselessly rips shreds into the auditioning public and he's so funny with it!), I got a couple of hours man-time at the bench. So thankfully the not too many stencils on the underside, national markings and underwing serials got applied, left to dry a bit then Microsolled. Before putting the Microsol on I attached the wheels. Happy with that so far. I also attached the windscreen (Kristal Klear) and gunsight (Revel Contacta) and attached the canopy to the electronics tray that forms it's base (CA). ... and last but not least, here's the canopy resting on the fuselage. Will attach it properly in the next installment. Well I hope you all had an Eggcellent Easter, I know mine was full of Eggcitement. So until next time, make sure those bedbugs don't bite, Chris.

Thanks exdraken, who wouldn't love a nice blue bottom, unless you're an eskimo I guess! Planning and doing are two totally different things Col. I wish I could model 24 hours a day but life throws spanners in all the works; there's work, families, football, mortgages, did I say work..... It's been a funny old couple of weeks since my last update. Firstly I have realised that the old saving the football with your eyeball rather than your hands trick has some consequences. My right eye is still having none of that seeing properly stuff. The hoppy passed me fit with no serious damage, just a vitreous detachment which gets in the way of my sightline making the world look like one of those IMAX 3D promo films under the sea where you're surrounded by jellyfish! They said it should settle down within 6 months - grrrrreat! Also I had an early 70's sports car that I was long-term restoring stolen a couple of years back. It has suddenly appeared for sale, restored, on eBay. I will be paying the seller a visit tomorrow to assess the situation, however if the Police can get their act together in time I might be able to recover it. Well the Sabre did get a little bit of attention in the meanwhile. The colour shots in the Milberry book show the RAF Sabres as having a Tanny/brown radome on the end of its schnoz. I copied the appropriate decal from the Revell sheet and used that to make a mask and painted it in. Well that's good enough for me, a Flory wash later should sharpen those edges up. Now back in the beginning Wez made a point that I have to say I dismissed at the time: Now I know that, what had Wez mis-seen? As if I'd put the wrong ones on.......... Shut the front door, I had only gone and stuck the wrong fins on hadn't I, what a dim-dum!! Sorry Wez for doubting you for a second! Therefore the trusty Swann Morton scalpel and the razor saw were used to remove those fins, breaking my razor saw blade in the process - grrrrrrrrrrrr! Then the correct fins were inserted, yes inserted is the right word just that they weren't inserted where I really felt like inserting them! Much better. These then got filled, rubbed back and re-primed ready to go again in the near future. The main airframe got a few coats of Pledge to prepare us for some stickering: The first evening got us the starboard side done. Tea-time to just now saw us add the majority of the port side.... I know I have a similar and probably even more long-winded task ahead of me with the refurbished Phantom but boy don't Sabres have a lot of stencils!!!! I'll let those dry a bit and I will attack them with some MicroSol and that'll be me for the night I think, I'm bushed! Until next time modelerinos, be good. Chris

Well it's time to strip her down to her shreddies. Wiggly worms off and all's well. The slats were the first to get their bottoms molested......... But hang on, The Hataka has lifted. Now it's squeaky bum time, now just what will stay put and what will come off (to the tune of the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" in my head!)?? Dum dum dum.... Other suspense-inducing noises are available! What's life without a little jeopardy then eh; as it happens the modelling Gods smiled down and apart from a tiny thumbnail malfunction near one of the wingtips, all the masking came off nicely. Tadah!!!!! There's definitely going to be more RAF Sabres in my future as these arrived today...... ...to go with these being used in this build.... As I said earlier in the thread there's plenty more Sabres in the stash, so I think when I need a nice comfort build (probably after all those Phantoms!), the Italeri 6-3 versions can get an outing, but we'll save the Revell/Hasegawa FOD guards to hide the intake shortcomings in those kits. Job's a good 'un! One quick question to the BM Massive before I sign off; the slat tracks - what colour? I've trawled the internet and the few Sabre books I have and none show the underneath of the slats or the inner-gubbins. Would natural metal/alu be a good guess or would they have been primered? Right, time to trek up that carpet hill to Bedfordshire as tomorrow's a late one as I'm off to see 2 Rifles box 13 AASR RLC in the Army Major Units semi-final tomorrow night. Now despite being a Rifleman for a dozen or more part-time years I'm a guest of 16 Air Assault Brigade, so it's the Loggies I'll be cheering on tomorrow! Hoping for a 13 AASR/3 PARA final. Thanks for tuning in folks... Chris

You are a gentleman and a scholar Col, thank you.

Thanks, am hoping it'll be a good unwrapping too. Yes there is a Crab 'Toom taking up a fair bit of deskspace at the moment. She is a renovated bird, having originally been 3/4's+ built and then re-homed to the SoD over 10 years ago when my skills were far more limited than they are now. Originally she was finished in the 56 Sqn low vis scheme with the red tail (didn't know about aftermarket decals then you see), using Humbrol enamels (no pre or post shading, just solid colours). She got Mr Muscled a few weeks back when I received my 2 pre-ordered Revell re-releases (to keep company with one other first issue and a couple of Hasegawa kits in the stash), and I thought why not use her as a trial run for the Phestival of British Phantoms (including the F-4J (UK) using Showtime 100 plus the Xtradecal Tiger Sqn sheets) that is in my near future. As I was using Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey for the Sabre I thought running this rebuild alongside would cut a few corners too. Unfortunately I have lost a number of key parts, but have put a request into Revell's spares department to replace them (fuel tanks and flaps being the main parts I can't find) and I had bought the sprue with undercarriage legs etc from an eBay seller as the originals had been decimated over the years. The Tooms in the stash will get AlleyCat seamless intakes, but again as I didn't know better this one was built straight from the box, so I have bought some Mastercaster FOD guards to hide that multitude of sins. To that extent and I know there are still plenty of little fixes needed, and I'm not looking forward to repainting the offices in-situ, here she is: I've literally just unmasked her a couple of minutes ago. The build quality isn't cutting edge, I was only using Squadron Green filler and wet & dry back then, not having discovered all the lovely manicure buffers and sanding sticks & PPP etc etc that are my current go to's. As I said it is what it is; it was too good a kit to get rid of and we're trying to make a silk purse out of the proverbial sow's ear.

Hey that sort of wethering seems to come naturally and I'm good at it, perhaps need to change my styles! Thanks Steve, welcome to the frey. This week's update is now in colour... Well my undersides are now bluer than a Smurf's backside... First coat of Hataka PRU Blue, thinned this time with its own brand thinner, and I think a slight improvement over the finish on my PRU Blue Spits built last year is evident...... Let it dry and then do it all over again...... One more coat (sorry I got all excited and didn'ttake any pictures of that - sorry folks!), then mask up the undersides to start the top coats.... A couple of coats of Mr Hobby Aqueous RAF Green (semigloss), and some LAG on the fin radome........ ....... out with the wiggly worms and the Tamiya Tape............. ...... a first thin coat of Mr Hobby Aqueous Dark Sea Grey..... .... erm let it dry and do it all again, again............ Despite being thinned to within an inch of its life the Dark Sea Grey looks far to monotone for my liking so some post-shading to get some modulation going is foreseeable in my future. Well this build is really 'whizzing like a Sabre Jet' as Chuck Berry sang in Run Run Rudolf, so until the next thrilling installment, stay safe out there. Chris

Thanks for keeping my nose to the grindstone fellas with the dopamine highs of your very kind words. And welcome to the madhouse for the new boys. They are good aren't they (until they fell into my hands anyways!). Hope my pitfalls of lopping off the slat tracks has help your build avoid this schoolboy error. The Millbury is a good read as well as its cracking pictures. Have concentrated on the RAF chapters but loads of great Sabre info, especially about the squadrons that operated it. Ah how's it going though......... Well, I've learnt a lot in this last 10 or so days. Mainly that trying to rescribe lost detail into resin parts is nowhere near as easy as on styrene and that re-building short shot (or possibly just broken off but I don't remember doing it) dogtooths on the wing tips is a right royal PITA. The two Sabres I've built so far both had resin wingtips included that were not needed in those builds but as they were 6-3 wingtips I didn't think I could use them, though I suppose with the amount of butchery that I've been through with this so far it probably would have been better to have re-shaped them. Ho-hum, hindsight is always 20-20. Another reason for not that much being done was the arrival of the second baby into the household in just over a month. Again not of the smelly, noisy variety, but one with two more strings than the last arrival. Just as we have SABLE for our obsessive stash accruals the guitar world has GAS, which I heard of for the first time from the 72 Custom's seller (Guitar Aquisition Syndrome) and as Mrs FC is always telling me off for my GAS I suppose I should keep adding to the stable anyways. In the meanwhile some plastic-wrangling did occur. Firstly I had cut out some slots for the slat tracks (you can see the bit of the missing wingtip I was referring to in this piccy too)...... ........ drilled holes into those slots to take some brass rod.............. (The primer makes the join on the nose look quite pronounced but IRL it will (IT WILL!!!!) disappear under the camouflage topcoat.) ....... brass rods were fitted into the drilled out bits and then attempts were made to 1) make the openings in the wings fit the slats, and 2) rebuild the tip of the wingtip dogtooth....... ....... OK so far so good. However I wasn't as happy with the profile of the tip as I could be so we had another go, this time using sprue gloop rather than infuriatingly brittle PPP. No photos of that repair unfortunately but I can assure you I was much happier with take 2. Anyways all got a coat of primer again and the hateful black stripes of the pre-shading clan were added. For completeness and as a yardstick to show a little improvement in techniques over the last couple of years here's a few photos of my stalled 6-3 F Mk.4 build. As you can see I have mangled far more decals than just the sharkmouth that I originally thought was the extent of the damage, so if any of you have these decals in your spares drawers I will happily negotiate them a new home in exchange for beer tokens. Yes we've done some learning since that build but I do want to see it finished. So until we have some PRU Blue on our bottom, be safe out there. Chris

Being too young is just as unfair as getting too old John, if only it'd have been a few more years down the line and you might have had a book in the pair of you! Go for it, I've pulled the SoD Sabre down now, (might shoot some pics of that but it was done a few years back and I've learnt stuff since then, not that you'd tell!) and have received some sharkmouth decals from @Silver Fox (thank you Andy), so should be able to push that one along a bit too. Then there's the other 4 in the stash! I see what you did there Col!!! Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. Thanks Peter, pretty sure that's down to the lads at Red Roo and not my ham-fistedness!! Well, we had the weekend away giving it yeehahs all round at Country to Country, and more to the point have now recovered from the 3 hours in IKEA on Sunday (Mrs FC's eyes lit up like saucers when she saw that right next door to our hotel!!) so progress has been a bit hit and miss. I took the opportunity to box in that vent with plastic card, and then filled the resulting gaps with sprue-goo........ ....... which then got a rub down with a damp copy of the Sporting Life..... ..... and then we were ahead by a short nose ..... The cockpit and wheel wheels were filled with bogroll and then covered with Tamiya Tape, and a coat of Halfords finest grey primer was wafted all over. This as usual showed up a few flaws, so out with the PPP and that is where we stand as of now. Oh and last but not least, The Canadair Sabre book ordered from the States showed up today, blimey it's a tome and half when you're more used to dealing with things like the On Target Profiles. Well plenty of bedtime reading there then. Speaking of bedtime, nighty-night all you Brits and G'day to the rest of you!!!! Until the next one, Chris

Thanks Duncan, I love being in the company of folks that have a true passion for a marque. I will try to replicate these as well as my abilities will allow. Well having already removed the wings from their casting blocks it was time to prepare them for fitting to the fuselage. There are no instructions with the Red Roo set and if there had been then I might have kept the slat rails attached to the main body of the wing. Now I realise that they should be there I think a bit later in the build I will opt to get the razor saw on the openings and then re-build with styrene (or brass if I have the right size) rod. We can save that for Ron though, Later Ron! The Revell lower wing also includes a panel from the lower fuselage which is not on the Red Roo wings so this panel got snipped off with the razor saw to be attached to the fuselage. Before I could attach the wings to the fuselage I had to use squares of styrene sheet to pack out the underside of the fuselage and to add a tab to the rear wing/fuselage join. When these had gone off and I was satisfied with the fit I then CA'd the wings to the fuselage, clamping them to keep the fuselage at the rear join the same width as the wing part and as you can see it left a bit of a gap at the front join. This got a shim of plastic card, CA'd/TET'd into place and was trimmed and sanded to shape when dry. There were also quite noticable gaps between the tops of the wings/fuselage joins. The first picture doesn't quite show the extent of these but they are there. The gaps got a filling of PPP wiped off with a damp cotton bud. As you can see from this last photo I have attempted the modifications suggested in @Sabrejet's last post. I had filled the circular vent with sprue gloop but even having left it 48 hours it still made a mess of the surrounding plastic when sanded. I therefore added a very thin coat of gloop over that mess at the same time as I tidied up the square vent and filled the surrounding panel with the same. This will get left for 48 hours again as I'm off to London tomorrow after football to go to the Country to Country Festival at the O2 (it's Hunter Hayes and Lady Antebellum tomorrow so should be a cracker) and as the trains have a Rail Replacement Bus service I've booked a hotel room to stay up in town and drive back on Sunday rather than suffer the bus ride on the Vomit Comet (as our last train of the night is affectionately known). Well ye-hah pardners, catch up soon, Chris

Another couple of hours in the "Fat-Cave" and we've a little progress. Removed the TACAN Intake, backed the hole with plastic card and then filled with sprue gloop. This got sanded down once set. The cockpit/intake/nose well assembly got glued to the port fuselage half and 10g of wheel balancing weight was stuffed into a suitable crevice in the nose. The headrest and seat arms had their padding re-painted German Grey as per @Sabrejet's advices. The Red Roo wings got separated from their casting blocks a a bit of clean up undertaken. The Revell wings have a panel from the rear fuselage attached to them, so I removed this with a few swipes of my razor saw. The fuselage halves then got joined together..... And that's where we sit at the moment. Going to let that lot set up overnight and will then tidy up the fairing between the wing's leading edge and the fuselage as the earlier wing would join the fuselage 6 inches further back on the real thing. Have a good one, and see you all later. Chris

It sounds like a modellers' version of Time Team, trying to recreate/decypher what happened years back from the things we dig up from our stash! Thanks John.

Peter, like most tricks of our trade it's quite simple (else I'd really be struggling). Sometimes I paint the hubs first and then use a very very thin mix of Rubber Black paint and dot it using a very small 000 (or smaller for fiddly ones) paintbrush near to the rim and then let capillary action take the very thin mix into the edge between tyre and hub. Sometimes this needs to be done 2 or 3 times if the paint mix is extremely thin. Then I'd paint the rest of the tyre as normal with normally thinned Rubber Black, thus never needing to get too near the demarcation line. For this one I painted the hubs, and then masked using circles punched from Tamiya Tape, and sprayed the Rubber Black which got me 90% there. The added touch was the Future Wash; I cleaned out an old Tamiya Paint Pot and filled it with Future, or your bestest substitute in my case Pledge Floor Care, to which a few drops of flat black have added and mixed well. The Future has very little surface tension so the paint held in suspension within it flows into all the little crevices which in this case gives a remarkably clean demarcation between hub and tyre. Either technique gives a far superior finish to trying to follow the hard edge of the hub with a paintbrush. Wasn't aware of this TACAN intake thing so am going to chop it off chop chop. Too late for the Speedbrakes but otherwise am going for slats extended and gear doors down. As I'm using the Red Roo wing I'm not brave enought to start chopping that up to portray the flaps down so they will have been selected up for this build without a doubt. Thank you for all the pictures and advice Duncan, I do love this place. I will see if I can track down one of your tomes too. My other passion is football but I'm not very good atthat either, never progressing any further than playing in local Saturday or Sunday League teams. By some fortunate twist of fate a business contact helped me organise a match between my team and the Tottenham Hotspur legends side. You don't realise how much knowledge and skill the big boys have until you see it in the flesh and that is how I feel now. Thank you for sharing your knowledge it truly is appreciated and is not considered a hi-jack in any way shape or form and is something I would positively encourage. Well that gets me out of jail fellas - phew!!!! Thanks for your comments and input too Wez.

Not sure correct is quite the word, going with a best attempt/good enough so as I get this one finished. Thanks Col.

John, what about building this diorama and saving yourself £25 quid plus into the bargain? The aircraft was a write off following the oxygen tanks being filled up from a higher-pressured Hunter source. Ever wondered what it looks like when your oxygen tanks explode; well wonder no more: pictures from http://www.rafjever.org/4sqnpic389.htm Thanks Wez, It's always good to have someone around who knows their onions. I have purchased this but it's still on its way from the States. Oh and I paid a fraction of that price for a battered ex-library version with annotations, but I'm not fussy! It's too late for this build but as I have two Italeri, one each of Hasegawa, Academy and Revell kits left in the stash then there's a good chance I'll get one of them right! I did do a stalled 112 Sqn version using the Hasegawa kit decals and cut the roundels to fit that one's open airbrakes so that shouldn't phase me when it comes to the Squadron Bars on the next cab off the rank. Again if anyone has these Hasegawa 112 Sqn decals spare and hanging around and is willing to part with them please let me know as I'd love to get this build off the shelf of doom. Saying that the first two pictures on the Wikipedia Canadair Sabre page show two shut down Sabres with the airbrake doors shut and there is this site with a 50-50ish split of Canadian Sabres open and closed. Was it an RAF thing to leave them open or an SOP for all Sabre operators? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canadair_Sabre_2_19104_Greek_AF_Ringway_30.03.55_edited-1.jpg#/media/File:Canadair_Sabre_2_19104_Greek_AF_Ringway_30.03.55_edited-1.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canadair_Sabre_4_19460_414_Sqn_SPK_27.03.54_edited-2.jpg#/media/File:Canadair_Sabre_4_19460_414_Sqn_SPK_27.03.54_edited-2.jpg I have to say I was disappointed with the fit. Perhaps it was Karma's way of telling me that I'd stuffed it up! Anyways Chez FC saw the arrival of a new baby this weekend so progress has been limited again. No not one of those noisy, smelly, wrinkly sleep-depriving type babies, but the glossy (but still very noisy BTW with a 100 Watt Amp) new addition to the family below (excuse the poor photo, Mrs FC is watching a Swedish Drama on BBC4 with subtitles and I didn't want to light up the front room like Blackpool Prom). I'm no good at all (son #1 picks it up so quickly it's hateful!), but I can make a better fist of it than I can with it's six-stringed cousins that I've been murdering for a tune for the best part of 40 years. The wheel wells got prepped for some interior green. Well we have now got most of the cockpit sorted too. Our start point: ...... splash on a bit of paint... A Future Wash before it got CA'd into the tub. whilst the Future Wash was open I put some on the wheels too. Used the kit decals for the IP, and it all just needs a flat coat and I can lick it and stick it to the fuselage and close it all up. I didn't go to town detailing the wheel wells as I really want to finish a GB in the time-frame for the first time so we got to this.... Once dry this got the Future Wash treatment too... This is hot of the press so as it dries the wash will hopefully calm down no end but we will have to find out what happened in the next update. Now if you can't leave them on a cliff-hanger then it's not going to be much of a drama then is it, eh? Right, I'm off to twang my G-Strings!! Chris

Still not got loads done yet this week, what with the social whirl swinging from the sublime to the rediculous as it was the ladies darts on Tuesday and then being a guest of 3 PARA yesterday to watch them trounce 4 SCOTS 8-1 in the Army Major Units Boxing Quarter-Finals. Anyways got a touch done. A few thin coats of Rubber Black, followed by German Grey and then NATO Black to try and get a bit of variation (The flash washes it all out in the photo) and then I can pick out the panels for the tub in Semi-gloss Black and the IP bezels in German Grey. This info has been interpreted from some great photos on the RAF Jever webpage which has some great Sabre info. I had a go at filling in the accessible ejector pin marks in the intake and jet exhaust trunking and filling their internal seams and then applied more Vallejo White Alu and Exhaust Manifold as appropriate. Next step is to be painting the front wheel well. Is the consensus that US interior green is the right shade for Canadair Sabre wheel wells? I also used a Future Wash to bring out the details on the turbines for the jet intake and exhausts. I also made sure the visible parts of the fuselage internals had a good coat of the appropriate colours. Again the subtle colour variations are almost impossible to pick out due to the flash. Oh, and these arrived!! I'm a bit cream-crackered after last night's shenanigans in the Mess so don't expect too much of an update 'til the weekend fellas. Keep smiling, Chris

Thanks for your kind words fellas. I know I'm being hard on myself but I was going for a just about pre-war airframe finish which I assume would have been kept nice and clean. The Fledge made the end result look like a battle-hardened veteran of the France campaign as opposed to the clean but defined look I was aiming at. I have to say the photos look much much better than it does in the flesh (unlike my Passport snap!), and the Flash-induced overexposure has hidden a multitude of sins so you've fortunately not had the full experience! It's more the point that the build was going so well and then at the last hurdle the FUBAR Fairies make an appearance! Greg, this is the thing, the flaws in the canopy that I can see in the photos, (now I'm looking at it on my PC at work rather than the Laptop I composed the post on), aren't there in real life, it's just the small window above the B that got some TET dribbled down it when fixing the top clear part which clouded it and caused interior paint to run down the windscreen part. I thought I'd been careful enough but obviously not. I used a horses hoof (the orangewood stick thing that manicurists use to push back your nail cuticles) to scrape off the clouded Future inside the screen and then added more Future exactly as you suggested to get it to a much better end, but just unfortunately not perfect. What I did notice though were 3 windows that I hadn't unmasked. The depth of the framing on these clear parts made it look like a normal panel with the Tamiya Tape on it. If I'd been going for the well worn look then I'd recommend Fledge as the ideal way, but for what should be a shiny clean peacetime Blenhiem I think some Liney would be getting a good kicking for the state of this one! Looking forward to seeing what you do with it Harold. This kit is Nerdvana and if I could have kept up the standard of work before the Flory wash I'd be ecstatic and would never build any other kit but this ever again (OK some would be bombers for variation!). Thank you all for your kindness and positivity, it's much appreciated.

I'm quite looking forward to it too John, and want to be on the up after my Blenheim build's disappointing finale. What can go wrong here? It's not like it's the first time I've attached a whole resin wing to a styrene fuselage now!!! Doh! Well as I was concentrating on getting the Blenheim into RFI not a lot got done tonight. This morning I re-fettled the errant speed-brake before I went off to work and got most of it level with the surrounding fuselage level and only needing a shim of plastic card to fill the hole at its bottom join (now those are not words I'd have ever considered committing to print in the same sentence before!). Then the Vallejo metallics and their flow enhancer got an outing to paint the landing gear legs, hubs and inner doors (you'll have to trust me on this!) plus the intake trunking white aluminium and the jet exhaust bits got a covering of Jet Exhaust (what else eh?). The fuel tanks got a good sanding and polishing with a 4-Way nail buffer and the fins were attached with TET. Anyways that's enough for tonight. Not sure I will get anything done tomorrow as I have an evening MRI scan to have a gander at some ruptured discs in my neck and then I'm off to a Ladies Darts Night to show them some sample trophies for their presentation night in a couple of months. "Doris, you require double one" (for the 19th time) will be ringing in my ears by the end of the night - I know how to live eh?!

OK so we made it over the line - just. The clear parts reveal did show up some flaws, some from the snapped part which I was expecting (although it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated) plus a big smudge over the "driver's" window that I wasn't; I can see him needing to rub that with the back of his flying suit cuff before take off to see out of that! I'm not sure the turret is fully seated yet but as all three clear parts that had originally been Araldited together fell off during the insertion (they've been Kristal Kleared back on this time), I wasn't going to press it further (in both senses) at this point in time. Lastly I haven't reclaimed the lost carb intake from the carpet monster yet, in fact I think it's more likely to be a victim of the Bin Troll as it probably got stuck to the masking tape over the engine. A lovely job in prospect there then and fortunate only in that I only empty my man-cave bin once a year or so whether it needs it or not! RFI is here. Thank you for following along and for your sage advice, support and encouragement. I have to say that if the build from the Flory Wash onwards would have been as smooth as the earlier parts of the process I'd be raving about this kit and would only be disapointed that it all had to end, but the "FledgeTM" episode has left me quite deflated and at the moment I feel that if I tried to kick myself up the backside I'd probably miss!!! Cheers Buds. Chris

OK, my first WIP in a long while has come to a bit of a disappointing end. I was going great guns until impatience was mixed with an equal amount of stupidity in a similar proportion to how I mixed Flory Wash with the not quite dry enough Pledge to create the new, and most certainly unwelcome, phenomenon of "Fledge"! Yes it could have ended up so much better and I know it; so be gentle, I feel bad enough already! I have tried to use the most flattering angles! Now I wasn't going to show you all my far too dirty knickers but in for a penny in for a pound. Although it has a B printed on the nose in my book this is very much a D Minus - must try harder! Arrrrrrggghhhhhhhh!!!! Chris

Like it, Dirty Kristen!! (I think that's a Clarkson fantasy but I can borrow it too for a bit if he's not using it for the moment!). The mention of that fingerprint has started the world's biggest game of Modellers' Where's Wally. I have to say that the weathering works for me too. Top bombing for the home-made markings; you must be well chuffed with them. Is the AM one going to be an RAF bird? Have got two 1A's in the stash (as well as the Revell RAF boxing of this one) so do need someone to neb some ideas off of.

OK, we've got an Airfix Hunter currently on its way to Chez FC courtesy of eBay, however as I'm chomping at the bit to start another build now that my Blenheim WIP is coming to an end, my thoughts have turned to it's immediate predecessor, the Canadair Sabre Mk F.4, which served with the RAF as an interim solution until the Hunter entered service. Let's have a look at what we've got then. Here are the box and sprue shots: ....... and as a teaser was showing in the first photo here's the full package showing most of what we are going to add to Revell's offering (I say most as I have also used my eBay Plane TokensTM - AKA my wages! - to buy a couple of Quickboost resin seats which should arrive in the next couple of days) The Red Roo early slatted wings is a drop in replacement for the kit parts so shouldn't offer up too many difficulties, and are needed as all the three options in the EagleStrike decals sheet have these wings specified rather than the 6-3 wing that was later fitted to the RAF machines (see note below re the 4 Sqn option as it may be that Eagle Strike made a boo boo with that one, but I'm no expert so can't say for 100% either way). Small moan, I bought them from an Australian eBay trader (international Plane Tokens needed for that one) and I got nabbed by the Royal Thieving Mail with their wonderful silver card that informed me that I was to be extorted £8.00 for them to be able to collect the £3.57 of tax/duty on my behalf. I believe a de-minimis limit should apply of at least a 50-50 split between charges and duty before collection is enforced as charging someone the best part of three times what is collected does lead to a fair bit of resentment to our lovely posties. The plan is to make the middle option, a 93 Squadron machine serialled XB829 'D', based at RAFG Jever in 1955 for no other reason than I like the arrow Squadron bars, and that I can find a photo of this airframe that supports it having the slatted wings, unlike the other option I fancied doing, the 4 Sqn one! The RAF Jever website for 4 Sqn says that 4 Sqn only flew the Hard Edged version (in keeping with their reputation) and there is a photo of XB931 in a slightly different marking scheme that appears to have the 6-3 wing as evidenced by the wing fence. I quite like the way they referred to other units using the biplane version when referring to their slatted-wing airframes. Perhaps I will build one of my Academy or Italeri 6-3 Sabres as this one. Having previously built the Hasegawa RAF Sabre boxing I can confirm that all the sprues bar the wings are the same as that boxing. The Revell boxing has the longer span 6-3 slatted wings which is no good for our chosen airframe, or any other RAF scheme as far as I know. The Hasegawa boxing had the unslatted 6-3 wing suited to the modified RAF machines. Onto the build. Well since opening the box I have had the Rocky Horror's "Let's do the Time Warp" ear-worming its merry way across my consciousness, as the metallic silver styrene is like a step back in time to the 70's as it looks just like the Airfix plastic of that era that I cut my modelling teeth on. Luckilly under a coat of Halford's primer it looks OK, I've checked that as a matter of utmost importance! First step was to glue the airbrakes in the closed position. One side fitted perfectly and the other, shall we just say, didn't. As I'm doing a camouflaged rather than natural metal finish I think we'll get away with only a bit of remedial action and still look OK. Found a couple of small sub assemblies to be going on with, i.e. the fuel tanks and main wheels, and although unphotographed I gave all the cockpit and engine parts a coat of Halford's finest. I mentioned the earlier Hasegawa RAF build. That has been sitting on my Shelf of Doom for quite a few years now as the "Muck Up Fairies" managed to pull off sizeable chunks of the decals when removing some Tamiya Masking Tape whilst doing some touch ups, so if anyone has a spare set of decals from this kit (even just the 112 Sqn sharkmouth scheme decals) I would happilly relieve your spares box of their burden in return for the odd beer token or two. I will put a proper request for this in the Wanted section at some point in the build now that my memory has been jogged. OK so until the next one.... Chris

Right we're getting close to a finished thing on the bench now but there's still time for those "Muck Up Fairies" to make yet another appearance before we put this one to bed. Firstly we had a night of stickering things up, no real problems yet. These got sealed with a coat of Pledge after adding the nacelles and wheels etc, but this is where my impatience/stupidity struck I gave the thing a Flory wash (Grime on the darker colours and Grey on the white bits - yes I know Dark Dirt is in the photo but I never touched it guv - honest!!) but I had only left the Pledge a few hours to dry rather than overnight. Anyways here's with the wash on - gotta love a really dirty photo of your bird! The Flory and the not quite dry Pledge became FledgeTM, which is my new word for the 'orrible mess that ensued. It's too late in the day to start again so I'm going to give it a coat of W&N Matt Acrylic as a topcoat, bung in the turret and Vickers K, slip on the props (after having found where the carpet monster has hidden the missing carb intake from the starboard engine), pull off the window masking and then call it done. I will leave the W&N overnight before handling in a classic case of bolting the stable door after the horse has done one! At least the turret looks OK!!! Right I'm off to prepare for the NATO/WP 50's GB on the other channel, catch you all later with a final update and hopefully an RFI if I've calmed down with myself!! Chris

Mark, thank you for putting your head above the parapet. Should you need more beer tokens please PM me and I will replenish your bar tab through PayPal for a set of these as I’ve got an RAF Washington to do with Kits at War Decals.

Having a wife that's a beauty therapist helps as she has shown me the joy of the beauty wholesaler/suppliers. Tweezers are much cheaper here than the high street or electronics suppliers (saying that bought two decent pairs from TK Maxx for £1.99 each yesterday) plus the range of nail buffers and sanding sticks is far far cheaper and better than any modelling supplier I've ever seen. Then you've got disposable brushes, eyelash glue applicators, surgical spirit, acetone, latex gloves to name a few bits too. Did a quick check for such places in Coventry and there seems to be loads!