Ex-FAAWAFU

You have almost overtaken me! Looking good

These guys, too: http://www.modellingtools.co.uk/airplane-jigs-92-c.aspWorth every penny

Top man! That's perfect. One of the pictures of the real thing in the BM walkround shows a folded wing with no pylon, and that suggested to me that what I thought was a strengthening plate is actually part of the pylon assembly anyway; your picture has confirmed it. Thanks a lot; pylons will be added this weekend.P.S. Seeing yours makes me realise what an upgrade the Aires wheel bays are - I am so used to seeing mine that the kit ones look a bit sparse... but since the undercarriage doors are closed in almost every configuration, the kit ones are also more than good enough; I don't think I realised how little would be visible until I'd paid that nice Mr Aires his money!

Get well soon, Martian!

In trying to show you my stupid pylon fail, I've put up two pretty poor photos of the flaps - so here is another one that shows them a bit better:

Yippee, and other such mild-mannered exclamations of joy; the flaps are finished! So, who can spot the deliberate (or maybe not...) howler? No? Perhaps this one might give you a better clue... Sea Vixen... 3 pylons per wing, including a large one on the folding section of the wing that holds the wing tanks. My Sea Vixen... only holes for 2 pylons per wing, because I am a muppet and neglected to cut the outer-most holes. D'oh! It is no big deal, but Sod's Law dictates that the one piece of faintly sink-marky moulding that you really want to be visible on the wing is the only one that isn't! Anyway - Breaker, or someone else who has this kit either built or half-built, could you do me a favour and take a peek? Do the outboard weapons pylons align exactly with the small strengthening plates underneath the wings, about a third of the way from the folding hinge to the wing fence? They look as though that's exactly where they ought to go, but I don't want to cut plastic and/or glue in the wrong place. Muppet!

Go on, Tony, do it in time for Telford and display them together; British Tea vs The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies. You know you want to...

Congrats on passing the first stage; I'm sure the review will be fine (unless they hear about your tendency to turn on switches which you shouldn't, of course...)

He's in a flipping high hover, that bloke. Bloody uncomfortable up there... Let's face it, no-one's going to give a toss about the box art provided the kit itself is good.

That sound proofing is perfect. Spot on

Good Lord. How on Earth had I missed this before? Astonishingly good modelling

Terrific! She looks lovely - just weathered enough. Well done

Do some dry fitting first; it looks as though there is a big gap inboard of the intakes, but I found that when the two pieces (front of intake itself, and the semi-circular-ish plate along the fuselage side)were fitted it all works nicely. I can't help with the other stuff, though, because mine is a different (FAW1) nose.

That's the FROG kit? Blimey! Top work, Debs; respect!

The same gear definitely went into the Barra, because my Dad's log book contains quite a few entries where he was in the back of a Swordfish doing radar exercises - but he was only ever front line on the Barra. He flew in a bewildering variety of types during training (including Wellington and Albacore), but the radar trips to prepare him for front line Barracuda work were all in a Swordfish

Those picky-up pencils are great; I use them all the time

I have to tell my favourite Wasp dit, and if it keeps the thread near the top of the board, so much the better. A course mate of mine (Rob Dowdell) was one of the last - possibly THE last RN pilot to train on the mighty Wasp. He and I were on 829 NAS at the same time, during a brief period when the squadron had both Wasps and Lynxes. At some point Rob had to take his CO (of a Leander, but I cannot remember which one) across to a U.S. carrier during an exercise. You can only imagine the reaction of the deck crew on a Nimitz class to seeing a Wasp; "great aircraft; build it yourself?" being one of the more polite ones. So Rob decided he'd have some fun with them. Towards the end of its life (maybe always, I don't know) the Wasp had an issue with "hogging" on the Nimbus. When you shut the engine down various bits of the engine cooled at different rates, so at some stages of the cooling period the rotating section of the compressor would bend in comparison with the static bit. So if you tried to turn the engine more than c.15 but less than c.30 minutes post shutdown, the blades would rub against the casing, making a nasty graunching noise. This was well-known, and not a problem; if you waited a few more minutes the temperatures would have sorted themselves out and the engine be perfectly aligned again, with no damage done. You just couldn't start up again during these few minutes (not without writing off the engine, anyway!). After having had the p*ss taken out of his aircraft, Rob waited about 20 minutes, and then casually walked out to his Wasp as though to do a walk-round. He put his fingers into the intake and made great show of testing to see if the compressor was free to turn (knowing full well it wouldn't be). He looked worried, tried again, and then called over an American engineer to try it for himself. Graunch, graunch, oh dear, knackered engine, reports Mr Yankeengineer. 20 minutes later the briefing is over and Rob's CO returns, so Rob shrugs and says loudly "Oh, it'll be fine", climbs in and flashes up - taking huge delight in watching the ever-growing crowd of goofers determined to watch this crazy Limey try to get airborne with a seized engine. His only regret was that he had no camera to capture their horrified faces...

They did; it was only the fake moon landings that had all those silly spacesuits

I think you are right re the sink marks, Bill; they are very shallow, so primer and general proper prep for painting might well sort it without the need for further intervention. It certainly won't take more than some Mr Surfacer at most. You could do the etch; I used to have a mental block about it too, but now I actually quite enjoy the stuff. Gator Grip was the turning point for me; CA was either too quick to grip so no time to position, or too brittle so the PE was always falling off, or both, and it used to drive me nuts. You should try again (though you do work in 1/72, don't you - hmm, maybe not?). Let's face it, those flaps look way, way better than the original Airfix moulded efforts. This is not a criticism of Airfix; there are limits to how far plastic moulding will take you in areas like this. See also the turned metal pitot tubes that will be pretty much the last thing to go onto this aircraft.

Starboard flaps close to completion now - the lessons I learned in fitting the port ones a few weeks ago meant that this time things have proceeded a lot faster. There are still a couple of tiny pieces to be added to the inboard ones, and then a little clean-up of excess Gator Glue (which is a doddle; just a bit of water and a toothpick), and then we are into primer land on the flaps... which will mean very close to primer overall. There is far less sanding work needed on the underside, because the booms are less obvious here. Note the blob of Tamiya epoxy putty filling the hole (where there is a brass plate on the port wing, which is more trouble than it's worth) The really alert among you will note that the second picture was actually taken a little before the first - the inboard flap being done last. Anyway, I am happy with progress. More soon Crisp P.S. That second shot also shows a bit of sink mark action that's going to need some sorting out.

Scratching the crane, I think - I have yet to dip my toe into the world of 3D design / printing, and I am already pushing my learning envelope with all this scratch conversion work; before I started this build my experience of scratch conversion was essentially limited to a few lead brake lines and generic busying up cockpits. In 1/48, not 1/350! Since I took up the hobby again in middle age (like so many of us), I have the princely total of 1 completed (pretty ordinary, though fun)1/48 Gazelle and a stalled Barracuda build (I mean the build is stalled, not the Barra) under my belt. Ark is my first ship of any kind since some Airfix 1/600 job (?Victorious) when I was about 12... so I am trying to teach myself to walk before I run, & selling any kind of work of mine to other people, even friends, would definitely count as running. If people like what I come up with, they are welcome to copy and improve on it. I also have to do something with the flight deck tractors, though (Airfix's are pretty ordinary square blobs, complete with U-shaped "wheels"), and to build at least one "Giraffe" (see earlier in thread for details). I only have to have one crane, but 3 or 4 tractors & maybe 2 Giraffes - so for those I might do some casting (also a new skill...) to get consistency. Home-baked PE is also a possibility - though since I have more than one set of the WEM PE set for Illustrious (I inherited a second set, 90% unused, from a mate for the price of a pint), it's more likely that I will adapt some of that - e.g. for things like the crane hook.

I hadn't seen the news of a 1/48 Valkyrie; bonkers! And we like bonkers! Intrigued to see where you take thus...

Oh. My. Word.

Bashed igniters? Do tell, for those of us not familiar with the Wessie in that detail. The Sea King equivalent (I suspect) was the starter "bullet" - the metal sticky-out bit at the front of each Gnome (obvious on the HAS1 & thereafter largely semi-hidden behind the anti-icing "barn door"). As the name suggests, this contained the starter motor. The motor had a centrifugal clutch system so that it disengaged from the engine once it ran up to a self-sustaining speed; otherwise you'd knacker the starter by running it permanently on the front of the engine. But sometimes this clutch would stick in the disengaged position, so when you pressed the tit it ran, but nothing happened to the Gnome. Solution was simple; Grubbers climbed up the side of the cab and smacked it with a Pusser's FB hammer. Over the years, therefore, most starter bullets took on a decidedly battered appearance.

OH yes - a saga, but worth the effort.