MikeW

Just a gorgeous piece of work. Cheers, Mike

I especially like all the details on the engines - that is really fiddly work. Clever move on figuring out the addition of the nose wheel to be done later. Cheers, Mike

Wow. Pure craftsmanship. Cheers, Mike

Worked your usual magic with Plasticart Alex. This was the first Plasticart kit I built, and just let us say it didn't end up looking anything like this. You do have a way with these. Cheers, Mike

Perfection itself. Magnificent. Cheers, Mike

Very, very nicely done Dave. I have one Zvezda Il-62 left in the stash, but was wondering about the ICM - you just convinced me. The quality of your finish gives me something to aspire to. really enjoyed seeing this. Cheers, Mike

Yup - decal cheat lines way too short for this fuselage. Had to raid the spares box for thin black stripes to 'kinda sorta' extend them to the nose. Did catch me unawares. No party spoiled at all - learned something ( again ) today. The MSA Comet I flew in in 1968 I thought was a Comet 3 - so, as you can see, Comets are not a simplistic subject.

That a D.H. Heron in the background? There was a Puerto Rican outfit named Prinair many years back that gave me so many Caribbean stories. Trying to get from Dutch Sint Maarten to the British Virgin Islands on one trip, the plane was so often delayed we ended up missing it because we were plastered in the bar. Next day we hovered around the counter ( very hung over ) and made the, again delayed, flight. Twenty minutes into my first flight on a Heron, my friend in the seat in front of me says "Oh look, doesn't the wind make pretty patterns in the oil on the wing". She was right, but it didn't take a genius to also see that one of the props was no longer spinning. Co pilot sticks his head out of the cockpit door, announcing "We have lost an engine, but we can fly on three, but we have to divert to San Juan for repairs. Pass it back." Cabin was really noisy, so just those of us up front actually heard what he said. I turned around and explained everything succinctly to a French girl behind me who spoke no English, who passed it back, and so on. There were three Americans in the very rear who literally shrieked when given the news. It was like the childhood game of 'Broken Telephone' - Lord knows what info was given them by the time it had been translated five times. Anyway, sure hope that is a Heron, otherwise this story is sort of more off topic than necessary. Smooth VC10 too - I am working on one as we speak, so love seeing this.

I'll let Mike answer that question, because he built his properly. On mine, I almost resorted to garden shears to remove the numerous, thick, 'gates' along the fuselage. So pronounced in fact, one could comb out a buffalo with them it seemed. Anyway, second question for you Mike ( wish you were here in L.A. so I could have you visit and teach techniques ) What colour grey did you use? Or rather, it seems a little darker than the standard Gull Grey I use for Boeings and Airbusses.

Very nicely done indeed Alexey. This kit always gave me trouble getting rid of the seam when joining the wings to the fuselage, but I see you had no trouble creating an excellent fit. Cheers, Mike

Very snappy. Cheers, Mike

I only have one I am trying for (apart from the East African VC10 I am just finishing up ) and that will be the South African Airbus A340 in the special logo that was done for the 2010 London Olympics. I am generally not a huge fan of 'one off' liveries, but most of these modern large aircraft have plain white fuselages, and I am even less a fan of those. Working on securing the decals still.

Nicely done - and i agree with you, the best livery she wore. Cheers, Mike

Thanks all - For that pic of the DC-9 I had to slightly perch outside the kitchen door - we are having a moisture effect day. ( Then had to wipe it down ) We in L.A. call it rain, but it is more accurately mist. The air is too damp for me to risk putting my Sonos speaker on the patio, but one would not actually get wet being outside. This will not stop the local media, featuring reporters in yellow oil slicks, posed near a small puddle on Sunset Blvd., doing a "Storm Watch" segment. Love life in a town without natural moisture. Great New Yorker Magazine cartoon from sometime back showed a motorway dividing into two. The three lanes going left had a sign entitled " Southern Californians" and the three lanes exiting right had a sign "Those who know how to drive in the rain".

Thanks - it is my 1:1 build. Didn't do it all myself, but a labour of love nonetheless. This one is Jelly Bean. Flying Colours had all sorts of edging stripes ( and two tone colours ) A masking nightmare. I agree Dave - short of snapping off all the bits and bobs, sanding and masking around the completed build does present challenges. But fun in its' own convoluted way. Tight git? Have we met?, and who's paying for lunch? I am sort of on a Five Year Plan, changing things out. I had a not so good Eastern DC-9, which became Iberia recently, so enabled this change. (Now the Braniff 707 can become TWA )

It is indeed John. I really enjoy their injection molded kits Thanks Alex - Another Kenyan build for you? Thank you for the kind comments all, they mean a lot. Cheers, Mike

Some great shots here. After 30 years in L.A. still haven't seen all of these - need to get out more. When I visited L.A. as a tourist ( which decided me to move here ) I visited Universal and they had dismembered 747 from "Airport 77" I think it was - where the jumbo ends up in the ocean. Seems they have a thing from wrecked 747s. Cheers, Mike

This is a redo of a very old build. Nothing earth shattering to report, but running out of cabinet space I am refurbishing some of the elder residents, you know, those odd ones we hate to talk about, but have fuselage seams showing. Had a sheet of Jet Set decals, older than Methuselah, but I've always found them to be very well behaved. They are very basic though, so it was with a sense of 'spares box don't fail me now' as I went in. ( and of course, the obligatory Authentic Airlines cockpit decals ) Always had a soft spot for Braniff. They started out in 1928 ( lasting through to 1982 ) and, especially in the 60s were always up to something different. They had their "jelly bean" period with the fleet painted in wild colours - the slogan, "The End of the Plain Plane". They operated the Concorde ( more on that below ) and then went through a period of major celebrity endorsements - "If you've got it - Flaunt it!" Some corporate customers felt a little uneasy with all the hoopla and pizzazz, and booked away from them, but their name was known. Had fun doing this one This what she looked like as I tentatively checked which pieces I could pull off. Then came the days of putty and sanding And with something else - the Concorde. Braniff actually operated the SST for a year (1979 - 1980), between Washington Dulles and their home base in Dallas TX. In an agreement with both BA and Air France, when the Concorde arrived from Europe, Braniff crews, both cockpit and cabin, would take over the plane and fly to Dallas - subsonically, being over land. Registrations had to be taped over, actually transferring ownership of the plane to the US based carrier, to operate domestically. Upon return to DC, the US registration was pealed off, revealing the British one, and BA crews resumed control. No Concorde was ever painted in the Braniff livery though. Cheers, Mike

Airfix reissue of a classic kit. Of course, New Tool in the civvie world means the original 50 year old odd plastic with the windows now filled in. ( Mr. Airfix, if you are reading this, not complaining, send us more! ) Decals from Ray at 26Decals. Paints - my usual assortment of rattle cans from my local hardware store. East African was founded in 1946 and finally ceased operations in 1977 when the three countries involved, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, each formed their own national flag carrier. The Comets were introduced in 1960. They operated the service to London via Entebbe, Khartoum and Rome, as well as a service to Mumbai via Aden and Karachi. With something else - another African Comet. The Comet 1 of South African Airways. SAA was the first airline in the world, after BOAC of course, to operate jet aircraft. Represented here is Yoke Yoke, the last Comet 1, I believe, to crash before Churchill ordered their grounding, and the investigation into what had gone wrong pretty much wrote the book for how we investigate air crashes to this day. Thanks for taking a look. Cheers, Mike

We'll want to see pics of course

Gosh - craftmanship is alive and well after all.

Some impressive 'decals around curves' work there. Awfully well done indeed! Cheers, Mike

Great builds Cookie. The background info makes them all the more interesting. ( Now to find a place I can look up Anglo / Polish puns )By my rough arithmetic, that makes twelve Spitfires in the last six months - I think a group shot is called for. Cheers, Mike

Like Stew, I was contemplating Devon minnows for a big chunk of the week - mystery solved. Just how are they used to discipline annoying motorway user ahead of you? Nice job on the plane. I don't care how 'EZ' EZ line is said to be, I believe being able to rig biplanes is something most of us mere mortals can only dream about. Cheers, Mike

I had a similar fantasy thought - about 10 airlines from all over the Empire and Commonwealth with their liveries draped over this Super VC10