andyf117

I was going to suggest teabag mesh - the posh pyramid ones mentioned in other threads, such as here (with a comment from yourself below!): But I needn't bother now!

Fit the best, as they say... ....we had Safestyle do some of ours a few weeks ago; they put the wrong glass in the panel over the rear door - to be replaced - and this weekend's storm has revealed gaps around said door, resulting in not inconsiderable draughts... ....so don't let them anywhere near the Chinook, Bill, now you're finally winning!

That's all it needs - whip it off, move it down and back, 'n stick it back on....

It was nine-and-a-bit panels in total (three 5' across the bottom, six-and-a-bit 6' along the side) - I'd costed the materials at around 300 quid... ....it had cost me £100 and about a week to put up three-and-a-bit 6' panels and posts (in spikes) on the opposite side some years beforehand... ....two professionals tore down and dug out the old, and put up the new - complete with all posts set in concrete - in little more than a morning!

We lost two separate panels back at our old house during a storm - one at the bottom of the garden, one at the side... ....as the side faced the road, and I'd previously patched and nailed that one back up before, OH said "replace the lot"... ....best part of a grand, that cost - wasn't able to do it myself, as the side fence had been installed on top of a low wall...

I got a £100 one of them, back when I had a proper job - and during those ten years I also got a couple of other vouchers as 'special awards' (one £50, one £75 IIRC)... ....I never got to spend a penny of any of them - OH snagged and/or chose the type of vouchers she wanted, and added to her wardrobe from a certain department store! I'd have taken the easy way out - chucked them in a foil tray, set light to them, and retrieved the slightly-singed balls after the plastic had all been burned off... My thoughts exactly; a lot of sheet got used for one small part - I'd follow the same practice as when casting resin or making decals, and produce multiple items in one go...

Don't know why I forgot them previously, but suddenly remembered that the MH-60G fleet has folding blades (and horizontal stabiliser too): Like the MH-53J, there is of course a large degree of compatability with the Navy's versions...

No, do tell....

Perhaps the Harrier pic is currently being replaced by one of the F-35? Might explain why the current image is a mass of grey triangular shapes!

Have just noticed that the heading background Harrier picture I normally have has disappeared - just logged in and it was the ship pic there; on going to restore it to the plane, discovered a dark grey pattern instead... ....just bringing it to the attention of WIMC!

Thanks, Pete; I don't think he gave me his name, as I never mentioned it in my article for IPMS Farnborough's by-then 'occasional' branch magazine "Sidewinder" - though as can be seen, we included colour chips too! From what I wrote, I'm sure Mike and the rest of the guys would have enjoyed the trip home more than the journey to the UK - that had been 43 hours via Asia and the Middle East; the return, however, was routing via Washington DC, California and Hawaii!

Thanks, Martin. I certainly do - I have around 16 of various versions in the stash, about half-and-half single and twin-engined! Cheers, Justin. The original ESCI kits appear every now and then on eBay (I got two for about four quid each only a few months ago) - it's also available in an Italeri box too, but not in a Revell one (that's the old Hasegawa kit)... Thanks, Gaz - it's the only RNZAF one I've seen, though it's not depicted as it appeared on the day, as the back was half-filled with lots of boxes of hand-outs, posters, etc! Thanks, Steve - I always wanted to finish and have it in a club display somewhere, and then lie in wait for someone to say "The colours are wrong!" I became aware of the Old Models decals some time ago, but as I only needed some rather than all of the markings, couldn't justify the expense... Thanks, I hoped you'd like it Crisp - I responded to a post of yours about possible colours a while ago; I think the debate was whether 'yours' would have been in the preceding 'SE Asia' style scheme, or this 'European' type one, as the timescale was during the introduction of the latter ... Cheers, Dave - my inquisitive mind eventually compelled me to go out to the shed and pull out the tins late yesterday afternoon... ....the fuller ones made distinct sloshing sounds when shaken - but I heard and felt nothing from a couple of the much lighter ones...

Apologies, Gary - I should have picked up from your earlier photos the direction you were headed in with the bomb fins; I neglected to specify in our message exchange that I'd used WW2-style 'squared' ones for mine, and assumed you'd have seen the bracket style and shape from the second pic I linked to there:

He does build quicker than a quick thing, doesn't he... ....quicker than me, certainly - I've posted an RFI today of a model that I've just finished... ....I only started it 31 years ago....

Don the underpants of surrender, or just have to change underpants after experiencing the terror?

Mid-July 1988, and the 'star attractions' of that year's International Air Show held at Middle Wallop were undoubtably the RNZAF's UH-1H and C-130 Hercules, the latter having carried the Iroquois over to participate in the Helicopter Meet Competition held during the week leading up to the show. No.3 Squadron had taken part aiming to win a number of specific trophies, and their success was marked by the amount of silver and glassware proudly displayed in front of the Huey at the weekend, along with the 'Concours d'Elegance' sword - their determination to pick up that particular award led indirectly to this particular model! Whilst taking photos of the Iroquois, I was rueing the fact that I wasn't carrying my FS.595 Fan Deck in order to establish the camouflage colours on the aircraft, and when I asked one of the attendant groundcrew if anyone could provide me with reference numbers for the pristine colours, I was met with a bemused look - until the explanation of being a modeller was proferred! The immediate response was on the lines of "You want to talk to this guy", whereupon a Corporal was called over, who, it transpired, was an IPMS Auckland member. On repeating my enquiry about colour references, his reply was that the paints were made to a local specification, and didn't have direct matches to either British or US standards... What came next was totally unexpected - he asked if I'd like the actual paint! The aircraft had been partially-dismantled for the flight over from New Zealand, and to touch-up any paintwork damage which would have cost points in the Concours d'Elegance competition, the groundcrew had brought tins of paint with them. With the job done and trophy won, said tins were, he said, going to be consigned to the Middle Wallop skip - he headed over to the Hercules, and returned a few minutes later with three 1-litre tins of 'Lusteroid' paint, namely the two greens and the grey which made up the Iroquois' camouflage scheme! Being only half-way through the day, and without access to the car in which I'd travelled to the show, I arranged to collect them later in the afternoon... When I returned at the appointed time to pick them up, I got a further surprise - instead of just three tins, I was handed a box containing 10, eight of paint, one of hardener and one of solvent; as well as the UH-1H camouflage, there was a second grey as used in the C-130's scheme, the national insignia's red and blue, plus yellow and black. I've still got that box of tins to this day - although after nearly 32 years of storage, including in a summerhouse and a shed, I don't know how viable their contents are now. Back then, however, I'd decanted some of each into cleaned-out 14ml tinlets adorned with 'Kiwicolours' brand labels, and even sold a few sets at a couple of model shows, after having first tried it myself on an ESCI UH-1 - which I've now finally finished, a mere 31 years later! I'd actually made and painted the model fairly quickly at the time - as I recall, the paint brushed on beautifully (over a matt enamel undercoat, in case it didn't like plastic!) - what kept it confined un-finished to a box for so long was simply lack of suitable markings for it. Until recently, it only had decals for its roundels and the stylised No.3 Squadron tail badge - the former from a Matchbox Strikemaster with the white portion overpainted, the latter red centre spots from an Italeri B-25's RAF roundels, with a hand-drawn Maori figure. What I'd lacked was the correct style of lettering for both the 'RNZAF' and 'Air Force' titles and the serial numbers - and, more crucially, the small full-colour squadron crests carried on the cockpit doors. It was while coming up with subjects to fill space on one of my home-printed decal sheets and adding items for a Huey that I suddenly remembered this one - a scan of one of the door badges and a few minutes work took care of them; likewise with the titles and serials, which were retro-printed along the edge of a previous all-black sheet. With my ongoing Sea King builds, however, I still didn't do anything with the Kiwi chopper - it was only on going to separate the markings for the RoNAF Sea King Mk.43B currently underway for the Nordic GB that the No.3 Squadron crests immediately below caught my eye, and I got a sudden inclination to finally finish it! A few slight modifications were made to the kit: the aerial posts along the tailboom came from a Fujimi UH-1N, and to be different from most of the other Hueys I planned to build - and hopefully will get around to one day - instead of seats at the rear of the cabin, I installed fuel bladders, made using pieces of black bin bag overlaid on sections of engine cowling (I think!), with thin strips cut from Swann-Morton blade wrappers to represent the retaining straps. The only other additions were the cable cutters above and below the cockpit, made from plastic card and stretched sprue, and the small upper blade aerial in front of the anti-collision beacon.

Aaagh! Don't mention resin! There isn't any - the fuselage is plastic - but that AND white metal AND vacform all in the same box had him scared when he opened it... ....chuck resin into the mix, and he'll be running panic-stricken for the hills, and he's only on his third chopper! But yes, I had the same idea - lessen the depth of the ridge with a packing strip, so long as the canopy's not too tight a fit beforehand...

I've only ever built one of these, when I converted an E-3 (got a few of those, too!) to an E-6 some years ago - but I certainly don't remember any issues with the tailplanes...

Very nice, especially the homemade decals! I have a few of these in the stash, all destined to be military versions when I've somewhere suitable to display them - but for now, the stash is where they're staying!

Ooh, another teeny-tiny chopper... ....cue the (in)appropriate response!

Indeed - you'll have noted that the above pics are all at air shows... ....the one taken in the Falklands obviously wasn't though - all folded up and tied down, but plugged in... Captioned at Jetphotos as taken at Navy Point: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/8769822 Whereas the same pic at Airliners.net says Port Stanley: https://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Air-Force/Westland-WS-61-Sea-King-HAR3/559085/L?qsp=eJwtjEEKwkAMRe%2BStZsiCnZXL6ALLxCSjy1WZ8gE7Fh6d%2BPg7vEevJUkvRyL32oG9VTAJiPtKLPxs1C/0gP1nUyDafkcTl3EkszPNYSyYxBBdujfX0xhv4Qi7XOPbxcAuzam/TG8TiXP3B5wnmbati8C2C4s

Another was the MH-53J; when the USAF added folding blades for shipboard compatability as part of the Pave Low III SLEP upgrades, the process was simplified by the fact that the Navy and Marine versions already had the system - the Air Force machines just had to be retro-fitted with the wiring, plumbing etc.. that was originally 'left out'... One of the few RAF Sea Kings to be pictured with blades folded - XZ589 at RAF Finningley, 1981 (note the yellow hoist): And again, at RNAS Culdrose three years later: I've also got a couple showing Grey Whales with folded blades, XZ591 while 'down south', and XZ592 in the UK, complete with yellow blade down the starboard side... ....as also seen here on XZ598 at a soggy RAF St Mawgan: Here's Grey Whale ZA105 at the last RIAT to be held at Greenham Common, in 1983:

I know you were, Bill - I just wanted to use that 'smirk' emoji!

Might one humbly refer the honourable gentlemen to one's previous posts, exhibits #86 and #116...