amblypygid

Oh, sir, you (might) spoil us! It's wonderful enough in 1/72...

Scary moments, PC. I hope you've survived, too (can't really hope that you got through as unscathed as Grant, I suppose). The Hurris do look lovely, I'm looking forward to doing mine.

Hello, all, and apologies for the unscheduled two month break. The mojo often seems to disappear in the run-up to Christmas, and a short break after Scale Model World stretched out. I did spend plenty of time practicing the figure painting skills by doing up some miniatures for my son's zombie game (Zombicide), but I was super lazy and left the Phantom parts on the bench all the time, and dropped a couple of paint bottles on the crew. No lasting damage, though! With the 'pit done, Academy suggest that it's time to tackle the propulsion system before closing up the fuselage. Jet intakes and exhausts are not an area that I feel too confident with, but here goes. At this point, the exhausts comprise three parts: a fan, a pipe, and the exhaust petals. Only the latter are really going to be visible without a penlight exam, so I hit them with some Vallejo Metal Color Exhaust Manifold, some washes, and some pastels. The fan and pipe are just simple Aluminium with a wash. And the intakes received a few coats of white after hitting the seams with some Mr Surfacer in a largely unsuccessful attempt to hide them. The flash here over-emphasises the slightly rough finish achieved by sanding the front edges before letting the paint dry fully (dimwit!) Time to close her up. A moment of panic as I put the pilot in place, realised he wouldn't fit under the ejection seat handles if the seat is already in situ, then found he was pretty well impossible to remove. But some wiggling did the job, and now they're in. Suddenly it's all coming together!

At uni we had to do some sort of practical with placenta tissue. I can't remember what it was, but they doled out whole placentas (placentae?) Every female student looked at the size of the thing in front of them and swore that they were never going to get pregnant. Only at the end did they tell us that they were bovine tissue. And, yes, then they told us that they weren't fit for human consumption, just in case any of us poor students got any ideas (we had). As for your MiG, Stew, it looks the bee's knees. The jet pipe should look very grubby, I think: here's a picture of a Sea Hawk exhaust at Duxford (Nene engine, so much the same as a VK-1):

I like the aerial, Jon, good work.

My (as mentioned, limited online) reading, suggests that it was both. The class was designed to deal with German fast ships armed with older 11"/280mm guns; i.e., the Deutschland class. The French envisaged that this would take the form of an extended stern chase, so imitated the Nelson class by putting all firepower up front. Somewhere I read that the turrets were really paired twin mounts, but the weight saving compared to four twin turrets was something like 28%. Since they were struggling to meet the weight limitations imposed by treaty, that must have been attractive. The armour was then intended to defeat long-range hits from the 280mm shells, though I also understand that Strasbourg carried more armour than Dunkerque. I guess that might have been a response to the more powerful 280mm guns mounted on the Scharnhorst/Gneisenau, which were designed to penetrate Dunkerque's armour at fighting ranges. Didn't work too well when 15" shells started hitting at Mers-el-Kebir. And I guess the Deutschlands would not have fared well had they been in combat with a Dunkerque I find the outcome of these arms races fascinating. So much investment in vulnerable assets that are going to be outclassed within a few years of being commissioned, or that are intended for a very specific purpose. I guess it's about now that the gaming-oriented amongst us mention Rule the Waves: https://store.nws-online.net/ruwaddo.html

If the pointy bit's at the front, Stew, then it means the tiny propellers are at the back, and surely it's not a pusher? I've not found the landing gear yet, either. Degaussing cable, eh? My limited efforts to find some online references have turned up nothing other than very general overviews of the class design and operational history, but sometimes ignorance is bliss! I spent last night working on said screws, or at least the shafts for them (calling @CedB, come in please!) Slow going but satisfying. Despite looking rather fragile, I think they'll survive handling as they're well protected under the bulge of the hull. I also constructed the kit-provided stand, which I think may have been designed for an entirely different ship in 1/700, as it's nowhere near wide enough, and doesn't match the hull profile in any way whatsoever.

Nice to see you here, Stuart. I'll certainly find it interesting, but whether my clueless efforts will interest anyone else... Seriously, I expect to learn a great deal from this. Although the reviews I've read of the kit suggest it's a pretty decent effort with no major flaws, a 1/350 battleship is perhaps not the easiest kit to start out with. At least the French skimped on the AA armament, so I don't have to deal with scores of tiny guns.

Hello, fellow Britmodellers. This is my first committed plunge into the wonderful world of shipmodelling (I usually restrict myself to things with wings), something for which I assign the blame to @Stew Dapple and @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies after seeing their stand and having a chat to Stew at Scale Model World 2018. Although not at all a result of said chat, after my visit to Telford, the modelling mojo fled and has only just returned. I imagine it went somewhere sunny and warm; no idea why it's come back to dank and dark Britain (I speak both meteorologically and metaphorically, of course). I've been mooching about, looking at my half-finished kits and realising that they're all at or very close to some stage that I fear, like painting white intakes on a Phantom. Anyway, yesterday I dropped into a local charity shop with my boss, who loves to pick up utter tat from there. I often find the odd book, or perhaps a game for my son, but yesterday there were two kits sitting on a shelf: Trumpeter's 1/350 Roma and Hobbyboss' 1/350 Dunkerque. Fate? Maybe. They both appeared to be entirely complete; certainly the parts in box were all sealed, so the only real risk was that a bag had gone missing at some point. Last night I checked the Dunkerque box to see if it was complete (it is), and then thought I'd test the fit of the big bits (they fit really very well), and then I started following the instructions. So, looks like I'm committed, and damn the Phantom intakes! However, I really have very little idea of what I'm doing, so please please please let me know what I'm getting wrong! I'm not going outside the box on this one, so it's just the kit plastic and the included etch. Unless I find the guns look awful and plump for the Master Model replacements, I suppose. @Shar2 did a very nice review of the kit here, which includes lots of photos of the parts that are far better than any photos I could take, so rather than posting pictures of the box and plastic, I would ask you to pop over to his review instead. I think my starting point will be to paint the hull and the deck, which I hope to begin this weekend? In the meantime, I shall post this photo of what is, to my eyes, a very lovely battlewagon: To those more knowledgeable than me (that's anyone reading this), I ask: what are the three parallel lines running horizontally above the boot? Are these the strakes to which Shar2 refers in his review? Here's a shot of the lady's backside, with one of my favourite bridges thrown in for good measure: Thanks for looking in!

The big issue with NMF for me is always tidying up the seams. I now spray Vallejo's Metal Color range, which work nicely (and without stinking the house out), but they do brush paint nicely. I've never tried brushing on something the size of a DC-3, though; that might be rather tricky. The finish is also surprisingly hard and can take normal handling without needing a protective layer of varnish. Those Roden C-47s are really rather nice, aren't they? There's another kit for the list. I'm really looking forward to the Daks over Normandy event later this year, it'd be nice to put a C-47 in the cabinet as a small tribute/reminder.

That's a very striking scheme, Stew. I struggled a little (a lot, maybe) to get the 'pit closed up on the UTI version, but I'm sure that was both my fault (rather than the kit's), and unlikely to be replicated on the single-seaters.

Great to see your father's build, Reini. Mine, sadly neglected (along with all other modelling activities for the last few months) is sitting waiting for me to resume. I'm not too happy with the Vallejo colours that I've used, though, especially the AMT-1 which came out very light indeed, so I'm waiting to see how this turns out!

Looks lovely, Jon. Just catching up after a couple of modelling & Britmodeller free months, and I love that Warhawk, too.

Another big beast, Ced? Then again, after the B-36... Looks like a nice moulding, thoroughly looking forward to this.

Looks brilliant, Sam, a very striking addition to your cabinet.