melvyn hiscock

Drill out the pilot figure to accept a lead lunch

The thing these ‘unters is that the have all sorts of ‘oles and indentations in them. There are even replacement bit’s already for the Airfix one and that ain’t ‘anging abaht in getting it aht to the old ‘illman ‘unters, izzit? a translation for people that have never seen ‘Eastenders’, lived in Sarf East Lahndahn, or who not not be from a England. Hawker Hunters have a variety of differering holes and indentations in them descending on their Mark and type of engine. There are even replacement correctional bits for the new Airfix Mark 4 (Excluding the missing John’s curves) and they have managed to release those to the ‘Hillman Hunters‘ = Punters = Customers, basically before the ink on the boxes is dry. the mk3 was, obviously, designed to be a bit quick, and so was very smooth with the minimum of lumps and bumps so some external louvred and stuff got left off. However there are still two very obvious bits on the rear fuselage that I felt I couldn’t ignore. from this photo snaffled from the museum,we get a good view of the extended forward canopy, which I am still thinking about, and the indentations on the rear which quite obvious, mine may not (May not? Ha!) be truly to scale but will be representative. That’s a good cop out isn’t it? the above *may* show previous attempts! I decided one was a hole, and the other one of those NACA intakes. To begin with I drilled a couple of holes, one each side, that wandered just enough to really annoy me so more filler came out. I then tried again. 0.03 pilot hole followed with a Brad pointed bit until i thought I was nearly through the plastic and I was left with a Holes clearly drilled by a brad point bit, complete with big hole In the centre which, for some strange reason I decided to fill with cocktail stick (wooden). This was awkward trim by I thought enough filler primer would work to cover it up. First the Brad pointed holes, complete with big hole in the centre. and then filled up with cocktail stick. Putty would have been much easier the intakes were stencils in plasticard to give me a fixed distance from the spine and held in place with double-sided tape. They were then grunged out with whatever tools that were at hand or mat work, craft knife blades, sharp blunt and broken, files and file ends, anything where I could get it to the point where filler primer might hide my sins. so, not too far to go. I have the fiddly bits to paint and fit and have to decide how I am going to make the extended windshield which may be a bit of plunge moulding, I then have to decide which red it will be and paint it ready for decals, but i have to wait for those as no one is doing white numerals in 24in and 8in in white for 1/32 or for 36in and 12in for 1/48. The nice people at Fantasy Printshop are working on it but as I pointed out to him, I am a publisher and just have to design a page whereas he has to design the font at the same time. There mat be some paintage over the weekend and the nice people at Portsmouth Model Shop are sensible distancing from us, and it depends if decide to put my gold top Les Paul back together. and I have work on the guitar book to do.

Ok, so it was a bit more than an hour but six hours on the phone and the net over two days, four years in to trying to get the same or problem fixed is enough to try anyone’s powers of cider avoidance. Plus 50 hours of chemo is a bit wearing... anyway back now, sore back, can’t sleep, might as well bore you lot. now, if you look closely at the diagram at the end of the pre-cider break above it says ‘gotcha’ all over it. do NOT glue it all together. Glue only around the fan. Tape the rest but tape it just inside the edge. The general idea here is to fiddle this in place. so, grab hold of the nose with one hand, open up the now untaped ends of the intakes with one of your other hands (I did warn you that you’d need three) and wiggle and slide them into place. They will magically stay in position whilst you reach across to get the rear fuselage and the wings, and enjoy this parts as, if you get it right you will win the lottery as well. in one swift move, whilst the intakes magically stay in their slots, you slide the rear fuselage onto its alignment lumps, hold this in place, and then deftly open up the intake in the wing, leading edge, slide that over the inner intakes without bumping them out of their slot, carefully aligning the back of the intake into its slot whilst not moving the rear fuselage that is only gently held on its alignment points in the front fuselage, and so the same on the other wing, making sure the intake lips all line up and there are go gaps as using one of those hands you’ve magically grown whilst all this goes in. Check the alignment fuselage and front fuselage and marvel at how they had looked so well engineered when you first dry fitted them without the wings now need so much filler and how all the little leading edge bits of intake have all popped out of the holes. swear go and sacrifice a goat and try again. still no good? mmm, not was mine. and, yes, it tried tape, and clamps and just about everything I have ever learned. for the guitarists among you you are looking at a (boasting) bloke that has completely rewired a Gibson 335 in 25 minutes, old stuff out, new stuff in. so, the Hunter. There is a cheat. Start by gluing the wings into the fuselage. In this terribly bad photo taken through the haze of burning goat smoke, you can just see the red where up I have painted the insides of the intakes. Yep, they there glued in there, tightly so the leading edge of the internal (infernal), bit is right up against the inside of the lip on the wing where it should be. this will not now fit on the fuselage as the recesses in the side of the front fuselage need yo to be able to spring these into the hole and you have just unspringinessed it. no matter, it probably already looks better than it would have done if you’d tried it properly and who needs a lottery win? Or, to be honest, a goat. So Hiscock’s cunning plan. this is all I had to cut from the fuselage to get enough wiggle room to fit it all in place and remember me telling you about that bit with two lugs that sits against the fuselage, and is basically some form of splitter (remember I don’t normally do jets), well it is an easy job to get some filler i there and make it good. Strangling the little git for being so difficult, Er....... I mean holding everything in place to make sure the fuselage join actually joined. and finding that the lovely Mrs Hiscock Has borrowed my 3/4 in masking tape and having to use her 2 in stuff you can see there was a little filler used around the front to fuselage join, but to honest that was probably tiredness. The scruffiness emerging from the intake is masking ready for....... primer! Meanwhile, the nose gear panel was on and sanded in and the nose cone glued on. I may have used this pic before but I did get a bit more Alnico 5 into the nose And holding the nose up to the light showed how little plastic was left. Now, here is where I nearly got got by another gotcha. I presume that structural differences btweeen the prototype in its original form, and for the record breaking would be minimal. The rear view option for the seat was found by moving in piece back to an existing fuselage frame and all I did was the opposite. At the back, the shorter tailpipe position of the prototype can be seen as a panel line on the F5 mmmm. Funny, doesn’t quite look right in the photos but measured out fine. this also gives a chance to show a picture of ‘John the curve’ the man whose simple, and correct, observation of a small piece of aileron should change all Hunter kits! meanwhile, down at the sharp end I assumed, how foolish, that the change on nose contour would come from the frame behind the nose, to leave the engineering of the nose bay untouched. This is the base at the nose gear but the frame right in front if the cockpit and the one half way down, by the nose wheel pivot have to have been amended too, as without, the top contour does not work. I *should* have taken a contour from this photo but I assumed and the ‘DFA’ rule applies, that is ‘don’t flip pin’ assume’. I attacked with the file again, and think I just about made it, but it was a good warning and the plastic On the nose of mine is very thin place. I have thought about injecting in some resin to back it up but you never know where that stuff will go. so, enough for this morning. Upper fuselage intakes and possibly some plastic moulding!

So here we go in the big gotcha. I sincerely hope Herr Revell doesn’t mind me including his instructions in here but I am not the first to come across this gotcha and they may help. the fist bit is easy I’d advise painting the fan, if you believe anyone will see it, first and then the parts 30 and 31 as tiger are easier to get to. this is where it gets fiddly. Not, there are no locating lugs on 28 and 29. The knobbly bits in the end are spacers to hold them off the fuselage sides, I think. I never found locating holes. So, it is all butt joins and don’t we all love a butt join. Note, the bits 28 and 29 go outside the lugs on 25. at this stage really stupid people glue on part 26. Do not. Do not even think of it. Do not even have glue up in the same room. Place it all together, tape it up and walk away for an early cider and let it all set in place. Then have another cider until you could you glue it if you tried. once it has set take off the remarkably unglued piece 26 and paint the insides of it, Parts 25, 28 and and since you carefully noted where you will be gluing in that cider haze, everything will be perfect. yeah, of course it will. This up is where you need a third arm and hand. now for a post chemo (cider) sleep (I has another Two hours fighting Nat West Bank today so need a kip), so back in about and hour .

Melvyn,, I have just come across your wonderful post about that modelling that lovely red Hunter at Tangmere - you are making a superb job of that and I look forward to the day when you can bring it along to Tangmere (when we are open again) so that we can admire it and it can sit beside the real thing. That will be a real pleasure It was a real pleasure to meet you and the beautiful Mrs H at the museum and talk to you about Hunters. Her Facebook profile pic is sitting in the F4 cockpit I had to smile at your reference to John's curves ( I won't live that one down if my colleagues at Tangmere ever find out!). oh, they will........ And as for Airfix, they will be told.....

Dad was keyboard sentry for the first period but being a marksman (badge on the arm and a shilling or so a day extra) And if the US had had to withdraw, which got very close, he’d had been sent ashore as a sniper to cover the withdrawal, so I doubt he’d have survived. They were also one of the ships that went in close against orders, to bombard the onshore batteries. The came back to Portsmouth After 7 days (from memory) And restocked with a minimal crew as a depot ship off Arromanches For 17 weeks. He also remembered the tannoy announcement that if the navy didn’t stop shooting down so many allied aircraft then air cover would be withdrawn. That’s one you don’t see in the histories!

Nuthun’ I lived in Airfix series one plastic bag WITHOUT THE HEADER!

Chaps I have a bit more time to answer this properly now. It is NOT a conversion to be scared of I thought it would be, so, the story so far and the gotchas. wings: the leading edge extensions actually do the job well when you cut them down, I had trouble hold them straight due to the state of my fingers and finding a drawing of the tip. The tip didn’t change until after the Mark 4 so you can shape the tip piece (which is one part, top and bottom and useful for lining up the cut down extensions. You can do it with much less filler and swearing than I did but the computer to print out a nice low, LOW, resolution drawing for me was downstairs and the stairs can be hard work, so I ‘winged’ (no pun intended) Do NOT forget ‘John’s curve’ on the aileron Overall wing difficulty level, about as hard as low backing a high back spit in 1/72 Fuselage, some of this is still to come but the ‘difficult’ bit of the under intake was easy, I could have done it better Had I spent more time but it just seemed to race along and I think I had finished it before I realise that I wasn’t scared of it anymore! comparison level, opening up a spit wing and doing a cannon, not even a resin and etch one, just a hole with some stuff in it the tail pipe simplified, without the waffle which I, at least, find amusing, tail pipe with inside moulded fan. After you have possibly cut if to length, see below, thin the edge of this to more of an angle all the way round. So the inside remains straight and the outer is chamfered to thin it on the outside. Take a piece of tube, the thinner walled the better but will give you a small gap on the inside between the tubes, which will slip over this. I used a slice from one of the big drop tanks but still has to widen the diameter a little with some 20thou plastic card ( a bit either side might have been better. This slides over the jet pipe, it was a Just a bit thicker walled than I wanted, but there was a little space between them, and it butts against the rib that Is meant to support the pipe nearest the exit on the internal bracket that holds the jet pipe, but you are about to lose the internal bracket So that doesn’t matter. Don’t cut the jet pipe or the outer to length yet. Gle the end of the fuselage and then Mark it to be cut to length, i was worried About getting a v-shape at the bottom so I started cutting the angle from the bottom leaving enough spare to sand the rest on my sanding beam. Cleaning up the insides removes the bracket yo don’t want, and you now install the jet pipe assembly a la Melv, from the outside When you look at the side elevation you can see the pipe extends a little from the angle of the fuselage. This represents the adjustable bit the is something to do with the afterburner and is made in two bits and can be seen in the ‘Thunder and a Lightning’ and mine. So the concentric tubes were cut so they were about right, and the outer then being bevelled like the inner Jeep pipe mentioned In the above bit, with the bevel leaving full thickness on the outside, giving you, apparently more space between. Into this goes a short bit of curved 10 thou to represent the bits that move and which are the outer part of the bit you see in the side elevation. Between the ‘rather mote than I intended wordage here, and whatever I wrote when I did it, is STILL easier than it sounds and takes less time than reading the bolleaux! I then knocked up a smaller ring and five bits of rod to hold it and Caroline, the esteem Mrs Hiscock thinks the new jet pipe I’d the best bit if the model Difficulty factor: Not very. One awkward angle cut needed, start at the bottom as above, the jet pipe stuff is one bit of pipe but to length, two bits shortened and bevelled as needed and two small rectangles of ten thou measured, curved and glued in the gap and then all that glued onto the remaining bracket on the rear fuselage. You just to take care to keep that straight. cockpit. easy, chop the spine at the Travel join to make it easy handle. Chop the bit of this that joins it to the bulkhead and cut this to the seat rider at the front, and not the back. Remember I was designing this as I went. A better way would have been to use the canopy, which of course slopes at the rear end, to show the new height of the inside, drill a mini hole in the top of the seat back and glue in a short piece of rod to show you how much extra height you’ll need under the canopy at this point. The width will be obvious, then fill the gap the best way you know how and shape to taste. nose cone Much MUCH pointier than you think, you could fill the nose cone with epoxy, as I did, be I’d not recommend using lead shot (unavailable because of closedown for but you might have some) as you WILL file through the plastic and most of the nose cone with disappear. You could then find yourself filing an epoxy/lead mix which is not nice, especially if you sand it. There are plenty of other cubby holes for lead, I jaws just stuck using a relatively lightweight and V expensive alloy. difficulty level. Not much so I hope that spurs you on, even just doing the wing work for an earlier version. there is one more gotcha, and that’ll go up later today or tomorrow. and has anyone notice Tamiya gloss read is bluer than the Matt? regrads to all and thanks to those saying nice things about my health melvyn

I managed it, here is the description of a pencil from the new, and as yet not quite published version of ‘Make Your Own Electric Guitar’ coming soon to a Hawker Hunter- building scummer (not that I do that footbally stuff) ‘The nut slots can be lubricated, although they may not need it if cut correctly, but not with oil as this can work its way along the string windings and deaden the tone. One substance that is suitable and easily found is graphite dust. This is sold in convenient solid lengths which are encased in a small piece of wood, often with the letters HB on one end and the other end sharpened to a point. The graphite can be rubbed into the nut slots and will further help to prevent the strings sticking, especially for tremolos. An extra use for the graphite is that, in emergencies, it can be used for writing shopping lists and notes to that wonderful person who caught your eye in the front row of the gig.’ And the caption for the photo (yes, there really is a photo of a pencil, I believe the same make as yours, in a guitar making book just in case they are a new idea to some people) ‘One of a number of specialist graphite applicators I have. These are encased in wood to make them more durable and can be sharpened. They are excellent for keeping nuts lubricated.‘

Thanks John, it is what it is, I get no choice in this I just have to get on with. Unless something miraculous happens there is no recovery, only extension, but it is not impossible, not at the Rate research is being done on gene therapy. the actual chemo is not too bad, I am on the morning after steroid wake up now and the tiredness will get me later. I did 36 hours straight sleep last time, and I had to fit that in between sleeping!

LEFT HANDED PENCILS? THEY’Ll BE TAKING THE CREAM 0FF OF THE MILK NEXT. if I can open up the pdf, I’ll sling you my description of pencils from the new guitar book

John, it is actually less scary than I thought. The update on the intakes may not be today as the chemo is not fun. Much better than it used to be by put I feel a tad strange I could murder a G&T

So far, so good, just arrived and it’s working.....

‘I’m so glad I gave up trying to fit the Revell Hawker Hunter intakes and took up sums instead!’ A Einstein, professional sum doer.

‘Even this landing was easier than fitting the Revell Hawker Hunter intakes’ Dick Grace, Hollywood Stunt Pilot

Well, that started well. With my already well stated love of this iPad combined with the utterly useless service that we get from Sky that had me have have three goes at putting up the thing about Dad up last night, and wanting to get a start in this before I have to deal with the WiFi at hospital. I know last night’s little story is not directly relevant but it was a chance to mention the old man sometime around DDay and, that in his opinion, my duty was with Neville on that day when he was really ill. So ladles and jelly moulds today’s rant, sorry piece if fine creative writing deals with the installation, painting and inherent psychopathic qualities of the air intake. Well, it may be written, it depends on the generally very unreliable WiFi at the hospital. it is a strange state of affairs when I am having five hours of very serious drugs, although not as bad as they used to be when chemo was designed to kill you a bit, but to kill the cancer quicker! Did you know they are STILL using one based on WW1 Mustard Gas! As I’ve said before, it is far easier for me, but it is a very 21st century complaint when the main moan is bum ache off the plastic hospital chairs (although we do get recliners) and the very 21st century moan that we can’t get online reliably! Come on people, (including me) they are saving my life!! And a quick note. You might think the oncology day unit would be depressing with people getting all sorts of treatments that are, in some cases, a bit ‘last ditch’ but with very few exceptions people are positive and friendly, as we are all working towards the same thing, a bit of extra life, and it can actually be quite fun sometimes and I’ve met some lovely people. As for the staff they are nothing short of incredible, seriously able to walk on water. It is only really the first hour I feel well enough but I’ll give it a go to get some writing done today as the intake on the Revell Hunter is a masterpiece of design in the same way as the Sinclair C5 and the 1940 Tacoma Narrow’s bridge. There WAS a small user error, I will admit that, but it is nothing in the scheme of things. so, clock off now as Mrs Hiscock’s incredible healthy breakfast and my coffee (Lidl’s Italian) has arrived and is more interesting than talking to you lot. if I can get online it’ll be about 1-2pm. It’ll give me something to do.

Forgot to post this yesterday Royal Marine William ‘Gusty’ Hiscock HMS Hawkins, bombarding Omaha and a Utah Beaches 6 June 1944. Uniform picture about 1943, colour picture was the last time he went our, to the remembrance ceremony in the local village. This was 11 November 2011 and we lost him in May 2012 sorry I’m a day late dad, but to be fair so we’re you lot! he missed his Legion d’Honeur by about 18 months. Nothing to do with a Hawker Hunters, but it is to do with Neville, but I’ll tell you a relevant story later. so far I have written the whole story twice and this iPad or our sky (rubbish service) has lost it on both occasions. so, I shall try again, and save frequently. Sadly I was at Popham on that fateful Saturday 7 April 2007. I was not there when Neville landed but I did drive Gwen back to Hurn and, as a result of that and events afterwards we got to be friends. I knew that she was due as guest of honour at the 2007 Dunsfold show, and that a flypast with Guy Black’s Spitfire and Jonathan Whaley’s Hunter had been planned so I left the commentary position to warn her to have a tissue ready, whilst I was doing this she was rummaging in her bag and gave me this. This was Neville’s own commemorative mug for the 25th anniversary of the world record in 1988, when he had reflown the route in G-BOOM alongside G-HUNT. Needless to say I was very touched. I was commentating, as usual at that one, with Brendan O’Brien who is a good friend and a very generous commentator. He said ‘ok Melv, you knew him, you know the history better than I do so I’m going to sit this out, it’s your gig’ As a result I was asked, in the following October, to recite a poem at the memorial service at St Clement Danes. Then, less than 48 hours before this,I was asked to also provide one of the eulogies. Former Chief of The Air Staff, Sir Michael Gaydon covered Neville’s RAF career, his test flying was covered by none other than Peter Twiss, and his private flying was covered by Gosport Grammar’s best known guitar maker, me. At this time I was in the middle of breaking up with my partner of 26 years so things were a tad stressful, with ball lightning bouncing off the furniture at home. We actually get on very well now, and she even looked after Neville’s mug for ten years, but it was not fun at that time and I got into the train that morning to get a phone call from my brother. This meant something was wrong and it turned out that Dad had been rushed to hospital and was not expected to last the night. My brother asked me what I was going to do and knowing Dad, I told him I’d be down the following day as I had a gig to do. Dad did recover, that time, and actually went five years later when I was commentating a show, with Bernard Chabbert at La Ferte Alais and is a story on its own, but this time, when he was well enough to talk properly, he gave me that ‘dad stare’ and asked ‘did you do Neville’s thing and when I told him I had, he said ‘Good, you could have dragged me out of here in a wooden box and you weren’t missing that one, remember he was MY hero as well!’ When the Hunter is finished it will be displayed with his mug and the order of service from the memorial service and the small Times cutting where I got a name check and I saved it for my dad. We lost him 8 years ago last week.

Don, thanks for that. The big gotcha is in the next episode as for books, there was Classic Aircraft from World War One from Osprey in about 1993, and Hawker Hurricane: Inside and Out through Crowood in about 2000. There was also about 20 years of regular stuff in Aeroplane, occasional in Flypast and others and a very big selling guitar book.

so, this bit. One of a couple I was concerned about. Knowing it was probably a NACA design me and a quick googling and I got this so, obviously, it was just a case of programme in the CNE machine (CNE is ‘completely non existant‘) and get cutting, or draw it and see what happens. It just fought it out, with the emphasis on rough... So, it was printed off onto some A4. For a nanosecond I thought about putting the plasticard through the laser printer unit I remembered just how hot the heater element gets...... the shape was then scalpel cut out and the hole used as a stencil on a piece of 10 though plastic As I considered using that as a cutting pattern, although the remains of the brain kicked in and I realised I would probably scalpel into it, or a finger. incidentally, for the squeamish, that is red paint on the side of the fuselage not group B or whatever I am. By this point I had painted and assembled, ok, I’ll admit it, assembled, disassembled and painted the air intakes and this is simply Tamiya no 7. More words will be had about the intakes a later date whilst I have a nurse monitoring my blood pressure. So, the stencil was used with a sharpie to give the shape of the intake, and then the good, old fashioned, method of drilling lots of little 0.3 mm holes around the edge, to start removing the insides was done using that thumb I was moaning about in the previous post to hold the drill bit. NOW you may understand why the fantastic Mrs Hiscock brings me apple-based anaesthetic at about 6.30pm, which is usually when the upstairs levels of language start to be heard over episodes of The Crown. Another piece of mildly interesting (to me) information is the best relief I get from these finger sores is actually from a hydrocortisone Ear drop! I smother the fingers and let it dry. It has not cured it, but it does make it easier (except that right thumb) and my Oncologist (who is a saint called Anne O’Callaghan) was saying that sooner or later the pharmacy would question why a gastric cancer patient is getting ear drops! It needs a bit more smoothing and chairing but I remembered to put the ramp in at one end, although I have no idea how I am going to make the grille, and I wanted to add some depth to the sides so that I could ramp that. This just means clamping a couple of bits of plasticard to the side and I am sure you don’t want to see a fuselage side and a couple of clamps. You do? Really? Ok then, you asked for it happy now? Good. once glued in this was shaped once shaped, my monstrous file was brought into play to angle the inside. As can be imagined this did not take long. This does remind me of Blue Peter, I am half expecting Valerie Singleton to be along in a moment with a story about Marie Antoinette. (I doubt there are more than about three people old enough to understand that reference. Once this was done I could glue the fuselage halves together but I needed to fit a roof to the intake and so used a piece of 20 thou plasticard with a slight angle bent into it so that it was trying to bend out of the fuselage. This was glued on one side and left overnight to harden, before the fuselage halves were glued and the slightly bent roof sat on the opposite side of the intake without a problem. Sometimes even I amaze myself. my run of self amazement (believe me, it doesn’t take much to impress me about me) then carried on as I cut and scored a piece of plastic card to make the intake grille, or something that would convince, at a distance and perhaps from behind a tree. I have just realised that I have put more effort and shown more photos of my intake than I did of the extended fuselage spine, so I took a picture just for you. Now, speaking of this, and perhaps apple juice, some false courage hit me and I decided to have a go at the rear canopy. The plan was, masking tape the rear, pack it gently with blu tac and then cut. From years of cutting Perspex for guitar scratchplates, and from making the windows for my Rearwin..... what do you mean ‘what Rearwin’....... just a little something I knocked together...... however, Perspex cuts better with blunt tools and different angle drill bits. When drilling, the drill bit is ground to 60 deg from 45, or the other way round, I can’t remember but you soon find out when your £350 Sheet of Perspex shatters. And blunt saws have less tendency to catch and do the same. In both cases definitely a cider moment, so having had a second bottle (it was an important bit in The Crown and the saintly Mrs H needed me to shut up) I grabbed my fast-becoming-famous vintage X-acto and went for it. if this isn’t an advert for the qualities of Henry Westons Vintage Cider I don’t know what is. You should just be able to see (as I could at that moment, the upright piece, that I cut to 10 mm as it looked about right. These were done first and then the angle cut to join them up. It worked. It worked I tell you!!! Next will come the saga of gluing the fuselage together with the wonderful intake system. Those who have already made this kit, as an F6 or the FGA9, or even as a conversion, will be giggling like school children knowing that I may reach a level of frustration hitherto unseen in the pages of Britmodeller, and that no amount of cider, beer, class A drugs or medicinal anthrax will get me through with any level, of sanity. there may be a short break before the next instalment, due to tomorrow being chemo day where I get my 50 hours (no joke) of medicinal anthrax,(mildly funny joke not that far from the truth).

Thanks Rob. I have to say how anyone managed to make sense out of some of my spelling last night is beyond me. I will admit some was probably cider (Henry Weston’s Vintage and jolly strong) but this iPad really does have a mind of its own when it comes to spelling and I don’t always spot it. The tips of my fingers can get very sore too. I actually wiped blood off a bit I was photographing. Basically, the chemo is helped by an antibody (anti body, is there a clue there?) which makes it work much better. This was only licensed in October 2018 and is, currently, pushing all my nasties backwards, but it sees things like dirt along the sides of your fingernails as a threat so sets about it killing it off and so is very much like Whitlow, so it is like an infection and can feel like a needle being shoved into the wound. Currently the right hand is worse, (which helps for what limited guitar playing i can still do) But the right thumb is very painful and trying to hold the bits of a Hunter wingtip in 3D with no fixed points was, well, interesting. Typing is easier on a touch screen, if it types what you want, but using the pc hurts a bit. But, if I was really honest (no chance there) the spelling could be the cider although (and this is genuine) I just misspelled guitar playing and it came up as ‘guitarviolation’, not only does it take the pi**, it takes the pi**! The blunt end of that Ventura looks good. Are you foiling that? I am also impressed with the sharpening of the pencil in the background so that you can write around corners! Seriously, nice elevator choppage.

This is what I mean abouT ailerons, the main hinge, fine (if you really have to have them welded in place) is just about acceptable but the vintage x-acto has to come out for the rest. and hey, look, droppable flaps. the rudder, as mentioned above got the full treatment So, apart from welded ailerons, the only change in the wing is the deletion of the leading edge extensions which is really a case of cutting down the extensions and deciding how to link it all up with the wing tip, nav light and pitot tube. This may sound strange, but I sort of based it all on the wingtip light. I cut off the very outer bits of the extensions as well as cutting them to width and I was going to use those bits to fashion a new wingtip but fat chemo fingers hit again and I couldn’t hold all the fiddly bits in place and it all nearly took a high speed flight all of it’s own. Hoe wver, it all seemed to line up in space so the sips got blued on and the corner filled with putt ready for the reshape and installation of the wing tip light." After a bit of aileron bullying, the Trim tab war files into oblivion whilst generally thinning down the trailing edges the leading edge extensions were quite straightforward And even the tips were not too much trouble. I can’t remember swearing once, but since I am generally A touch ‘Anglo Saxon’ in choice of language I’d hardly notice Ok, it might not ‘exactly’ match the drawing but let’s face it, my drawing didn’t ‘exactly’ match either. oh there was a bit of thinning of the trailing edge on the elevators and the last job before nailing most of it together would be the intake upon the underside. Whoever designed this was thinking of 1/32 scale modellers as it was 8 inches from the fuselage join, or 1/4 in and it measured 31 1/2 inches long which in 1/32 is....( carry the one, multiply by the integer, forget the number you first thought of an say ‘ok, it’s an inch) the drawing was printed off to the scale size, which was even cut and uses as a stencil. The whole was cut in the time honoured way of lots of drill holes and chopping with craft knife and files. the original ,looks like this But his is going to have to wait as the cider I’d kicking in, I am knackered from spending four and a half hours on the phone and net to Nat West Bank yesterday to get them to do a minute mistake that has mended me around for four years and it sounds like Mrs H is about to feed me. intakes tomorrow or when I surface after chemo

Thanks James, again, most appreciated. You may be interested that I have an interesting WW1 article to get written (there is mention of it above) and Bob Grimstead, aviation author, excellent pilot and jolly good all round chappie, has been trying to get me doing more for the aviation magazines. There was even talk of some flight reviews, but permanent chemo means I can’t even self-certificate so no more licence for me (I did mention 2 June 1992 was first solo, I wanted to fly that day but....) It has been one of the toughest parts of the chemo, to lose the flying, And the fingers problem mean I’ve almost lost guitar playing too, although they are not too bad really at the moment. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the serial killing it would be hardly worth getting out of bed.

Thanks for the replies folks. It is nice to get a response. now, can anyone advise me how to get in and edit out my spelling mistake in the title page? Rob Lyttle, your picture *just* misses out an interesting point. The very helpful John Wright, who arranged our visit, pointed out something in the Hunter wing that models (can’t speak for the Airfix one it was not out at the time of the visit) generally get wrong and that is the outer tip of the aileron is not straight but has a slight curve, missed off of most, if not all, models. John is right ( as well as Wright) and it is quite a marked curve jut not quite visible in Rob’s picture above. John did joke that my visit to Tangmere was only allowed on condition this curve was included in my model of WB188, and so I have nicknamed it ‘John’s curve’ ever since. It only Takes a couple of swipes with my mahoosive (but scared of Alnico magnets) file. This brings me to another of my bugbear of models and that is welded control surfaces. I can understand moulded control surfaces on 1/72 models (just) but in 1/32? Not only that, but the flaps are separate. I know people love to have the flaps opened on models, and that is wrong when they are parked. It is check list stuff. Most checklists, Hunter probably included actually say ‘on turning off the runway, raise the flaps unless you plan to display your otherwise perfect aircraft at Telford’. Now, dropped flaps, unprototypical as they are, are not as offensive to me as welded control surfaces. Flaps do get dropped on the ground for maintenance and to show off the excellent 1:1 scale parts Eduard make for the real thing. On the other hand, welded control surfaces can make any flying, other than straight and level, problematical. Joking apart (as if) the Hunter elevators *almost* get away with it, as they look like they would be capable of movement, the same applies to the rudder that I did cut and reposition, even though it would have been straight on the ground, just to wave two fingers at the designer who did the ailerons. The main hinge line on these is similar to the elevators, so 5/10, but the ends and the small corner angle are almost invisible and moulded on as if an afterthought. They have made a relatively acceptable attempt at moulding in the trim tab. This is fine for the F6 but an external flap was fitted in the port wing of WB188. and hey! Look at that, a VISIBLE gap between the aileron and the rest of the wing suggesting the aileron might actually move if called upon in flight. Is this too much to ask? Even making mine with the ailerons central required quite a bit of work with the old x-acto (and it IS old, small drill, craft knife, ruler and chainsaw. Now I am off up to the wonderful Queen Alexandra Hospital to have my two weekly blood taken prior to Monday’s chemo. The best decision I made was to have a picc line fitted as it means I don’t have to get stabbed for each blood test and for the drug line, for the (chemically very nasty) chemo. This is just a tube out of my upper arm and is no bother at all and makes life really easy. The staff are excellent and most know I make up all sorts of alternative names for stuff (chemo is ‘creative poisoning’) and I call the picc line ‘the vodka port’. One day a young junior nurse took me to one side and said ‘you do know if you use it for vodka you’ll die?!’ She was so sweet about it and I promised her it was a joke. so, off to give my blood samples and have the line redressed. This is one of the three times in two weeks I get to leave the house.

So, after that very welcome interjection from DonH, it is back to the nose cone. It started to get very clear the plastic was getting thin, so in the absence of those sadly missed, old fashioned things called shops there was no way to get an epoxy filler, and Squadron putty, bless it, would have taken aeons to dry and the solvents would probably have melted the nose cone. So it was done to some epoxy glue that was at least five years old and in the bottom of the ‘guitar tools I’ve got left’ box. Luckily I’d put the correct lid on the correct tube last time I’d used them (oh how I laughed when I did that wrong once) And it took two lots mixed up in the lymacyclene containers to fill the nosecone it has been a while since I used epoxy in this sort of amount, and I was surprised at how warm it got, and how green ‘clear’ epoxy can go after years of sitting around and still work. I did think about sticking in another magnet but it would have been very close to the edge and if I had to attempt to file it with the epoxy my natural happy exterior may have shown some slight alteration as Alnico is as tough as old boots. I can’t place the plastic bag with the magnets next to the file as they sit in the bag jeering and making rude remarks about the file’s manhood! I think one or two of the crept put the other night and beat up the neighbours Pitt Bull, they are that tough. so, it was back to filing and sanding and I was through the plastic and onto the epoxy very quickly. oh, and I glued the tail one together to make a stand for the epoxy. It was getting time to think about afterburners as things were going well. it was becoming clear, by the point that I needed to start in the wings, the whole nose section, so gluing in the nosegear bay, more magnets, final shaping of the spine (which had already been chopped at the rear nose join to make handling easier, the intakes, tail cone and the air intake under the fuselage, and to start thinking about how my ragged brain was going to get the intakes and the whole lot together. This was to become fun, as anyone that has made the Mk6 or Mk9 will know already. so I started with the tail cone. The original engine doesn’t help much neither do my picture of the insides although you can see the concentric pipes, with the centre one being split. Damien Burke’s picture from his ‘Thunder and Lightnings’ site that he very kindly slung over to me in Dropbox showed more inside detail. and big thanks to big D for letting me use them. it was clear this was going to be a bodge job. (Many people may not know the word ‘bodge’ often used, as in this case, to refer to a hurried and sub standard job, is actually a term from the furniture trade, and in High Wycombe, very much a furniture making town (as well as, for many years, home to the excellent Wal bass guitars) has/had a pub called the ‘jolly bodger’) the kit includes an aft fan in a section of tube to act as the non after burning Avon back end. I cut the tailpipe to the measurements made on the prototype with the lines accurately marked (?) and the bits glued together, a bit of masking take was used as a guide for the pre-CBS (guitar joke) x-acto razor saw and then, in true a Blue Peter fashion here is one I’ve already done engineering perfection I decided I needed an outer ring, with the kit jet pipe acting as the inner pipe. This, when inserted from the outside, rather than inside as on the kit instructions protrudes a little from the now shorter fuselage, which is what is wanted. I took one of the kit fuel tanks (sorry for anyone that wanted a swap when the Covid restrictions are lifted), cut a slice, and with a small insert of plastic card, this was the right diameter to go around the outside of the jet pipe. I then added a couple of small pieces of 10thou plastic to be the adjustable bits and chopped off a Tamiya bomb to act as the thinner afterburner tube on Damien’s pic. A five pointed star of thin rod was added to this and dropped into place. Not bad for an admitted bodge ok, not good for a bodge either. Jet pipe at left, shortened rear fuselage and my first attempt at an outer pipe before I realised curling up drop tanks was easier. afterburnery bits from the side and in place covered in NATO ‘hides a multitude of sins‘ black And just before I limp off upstairs to spray primer, just another reminder of my attention to magnetic detail when gluing the nose together.... I snuck another five in there before I glued the nose wheel bay in. also, and just because it is fun, when Neville and Gwen used to visit Popham, it was not unusual for the manager Dick Richardson to break out the famous Popham VIP limo. Here is Dick with Neville and probably Gwen hidden in the sidecar, at Popham. I could name you several famous and admired ‘hero’s’ who would not be seen dead doing this. This is my hero, who loved it. wings and air intake later although cider may be taken first