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dhdove

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Posts posted by dhdove

    Tamiya filler + Mr Color levelling thinner = Mr Surfacer 500 or 1000/200....etc.

    in Modelling Tips

    Posted

    Hi all

    Sorry if this is common knowledge......but,

    I gave up early on with Humbrol filler due to it's inconsistency, sometimes fine, sometimes liquid (maybe they should mix it better....?)

    I bought Tamiya Putty, basic type filler which is fantastic, the quality reminded me of their primer, tho I had to get it from abroad. Two tubes will last me ages!

    Tamiya putty can be applied and then immediately wiped off with Mr Color levelling thinner with a cotton bud which saves much, sometimes all, rubbing down, brilliant!

    Since MrC. Thinner is clearly a solvent for Tamiya putty I wondered if you could use it as a thinner and indeed you can. Put a dollop of putty on your tray, add some thinner and mix.....to any consistency you wish from milky to gloopy, then just brush it into your seams etc to suit and it will fill and run as you wish......fantastic!

    Hope this tip is of use to you.

    TonyS

    • Like 2

    RAF MIldenhall to close?

    in Real Aviation

    Posted · Edited by dhdove

    Wasn't sure where to post this but this seems as good a place as any given the history.

    Libby and I have soooooo many happy memories from Air Fete over the years, not to mention the historic significance of the USAF presence here.

    Yet another VERY sad day, tho apparently there is to be expansion at Lakenheath.

    TonyS

    • Like 1

    Trumpeter UK Support?

    in Aircraft Cold War

    Posted

    Hi all

    I've been on with my 1/48 A-3D-2 Skywarrior for a couple of weeks now and I've been finding it an interesting challenge, though I know the kit has some recognised problems.

    My problem is that both fuselage halves are warped, the port much worse than the starboard being both warped and twisted giving it a 3/8 inch error from nose to tail. I've tried to straighten it in hot water but it returned to it's twisted form making me wonder if it was actually twisted on production.

    I'm assembling each individual fuselage component separately and there are lots (cockpit, nose wheel bay, crew access bay, weapons bay, two main gear bays) and resisting the temptation to join them together which I think will make for a more complex and difficult assembly due to any compounded errors but dry fitting to date indicates that the fuse is so warped it won't easily assemble.

    My question therefore.....is there a contact for importer/distributor for Trumpeter in the UK that I can contact and try to source two new fuselage replacements.....I know I may be asking a lot!

    I have contacted the seller and am awaiting a reply but thought that you may be able to help?

    Any suggestions?

    Best Regards

    TonyS

    FJ-4B Fury, HobbyBoss 1/48

    in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by dhdove

    Thanks both.

    Scott, many congrats on your first post on the Britmodeller Forum :-)

    Michael, I think you may have a bit of a wait......I opened the box this morning and started on a daunting amount of plastic! There is so much to fit inside the fuse and the two fuse halves are a bit hit and miss dry fitting with nothing inside them. I think this one is really going to test me.

    However, it's a challenge, we'll see how it progresses.

    TonyS

    • Like 1

    FJ-4B Fury, HobbyBoss 1/48

    in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by dhdove

    Hi all

    Here's my latest build the navalised Sabre and allegedly the best of a great line of aircraft.

    3143f030f7c968c5433e7e8a39d3b011.jpg

    The kit went together well, tho the instrument panel was poor, I added a spare etch panel (you can barely see it anyway!). Spare seat belts helped the seat to look the business.

    af277f7c6aaf5b4a0a0567822fdbd167.jpg

    The kit has two main faults, first the nosegear is way too short, presumably modelled on a museum model with a collapsed nose leg oleo. I cut the leg at the end of the fescalated portion and inserted a cut off pin, extending it by 3mm, about seven inches in scale, I then wrapped this in Bare Metal Chrome foil to make up the diameter. The torque links were split and extended and then re-fitted. This gave the model an authentic Fury "stance".

    15914cfa7a43a15ba35367e7cccf8516.jpg

    Secondly, the kit is supplied with six AMG-12 early Bullpup missiles. Unfortunately the Fury had to carry a guidance pod to use this ordnance which is not included,

    AMS resin to the rescue, their guidance pod is back in stock at Sprue Brothers and this provided the solution. Fins are scratch built from a supplied template.

    aac65f4e1e2cac50ca3decb53fd1333a.jpg

    I loved the markings supplied as one of two options, Marines VMF-323 from 1958.

    c1abb3121913b0456671040b2be99bc9.jpgthis time round I tried pre shading the panel lines with Faber Castell artists Pitt pens "shades of grey". I think I need more practice as I was a bit slap dash but this has to be an easy way forward. Again I post shaded lightly using Royal and Langnickel Soft Artists Pastels in greytone.

    bec48b323aeaa8dd686e1b1b844d3f52.jpg

    That's it, hope you like it.

    Next up my biggest (literally) challenge to date, the mammoth 1/48 Trumpeter A-3D-2 Skywarrior.......wish me luck .......

    Best

    TonyS

    • Like 10

    FJ-4B Aim-12 Bullpup Control Pod (HobbyBoss 1/48)

    in Aircraft Cold War

    Posted · Edited by dhdove

    My apologies, I didn't express myself clearly.

    I believe that a conscious decision was made specifically with the FJ-4B Fury NOT to instal the Bullpup guidance equipment inside the fuselage because of the excessive weight in what was after all a fighter aircraft, which it would have to carry at all times on all mission profiles. I don't know if available space within the airframe also played a part in this.

    Consequently the FJ-4B had the guidance pod fitted underwing for AGM-12 ground attack missions allowing the missile to be guided onto it's target but also for the guidance pod to be removed for other mission profiles.

    Here's one source.....

    "The FJ-4B was equipped to deliver the Martin ASM-N-7 Bullpup air-to-surface guided missile. The Bullpup was an eleven-foot long missile driven by an Aerojet General solid rocket motor. Total weight of the missile was 571 pounds and it was equipped with a 250-pound high explosive warhead. Maximum speed of the Bullpup was about Mach 1.7 and its effective range was in excess of four miles. Up to five Bullpups could be carried underwing on the FJ-4B, with the starboard inner station (#4) carrying a guidance transmitter pod. The Bullpup was redesignated AGM-12B in 1962."

    http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/p86_24.html

    Some other aircraft did carry the equipment internally, so the Weapons Set B is OK for them. If Hasegawa wasn't making a Fury there would be no need for it for it to accompany their kits.

    Yes, I agree completely, it's HobbyBoss's mistake not to include the pod!

    And of course, my mistake! AGM-12 not AIM-12, please forgive that one! I don't think it was ever employed as an airborne interceptor missile, but then, who knows.......maybe it was!!!

    In other news the AMS resin guidance pod is back in production this week (yay!) and will be available at the weekend, my order has already gone in! I've just started painting the airframe so dependent upon the transatlantic Xmas post hopefully it will all come together before Xmas.

    Thanks so much for your input, it is appreciated.

    Sorry if I was a bit vague.

    Best Regards

    TonyS

    • Like 2

    S-3A Viking 1/48 AMT

    in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Posted

    It's lovely to see a USN aircraft finished as the real thing in the gull grey and white scheme: nice and glossy and not blighted by rediculously over done weathering and panel lines.

    Bravo and congrats on a lovely build!

    Tom

    I like it too.....nice work and a great US Navy bird.

    Interesting comment on weathering Tom, I agree with you, I like the out of the factory look, but I know all aircraft weather, it's so difficult to take a balanced approach?

    No doubt some will say check contemporary photos as a reference but TBH I think that weathering in some cases is out of hand.

    I'm an aircraft engineer and some models I've seen here would have never been allowed out of the hangar to get into the drastic state they're displayed in here, let alone in in real life.

    I guess it's a compromise, weathering certainly adds scale "realism" but certainty some people who have never put a spanner onto an aeroplane have a peculiar idea of it.

    TonyS

    Old-school Airfix Defiant - Saturday afternoon special tribute build!

    in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by dhdove

    I bet it was more fun then in the days when you just didn't know all this thing you have to worry about.

    Of course it was accurate, Airfix may it so it would have been. Even more accurate than the real thing :banghead:

    I guess there were " serious" modellers then?...maybe?

    As a ten year old into Jennings, Biggles and Thunderbirds most of my kits went out of the bedroom window, sometimes afire after enemy action.....

    But how I still love those plastic bags with the colourful picture stapled over the top and the instructions hidden inside, when I see them at meets (at silly prices) it takes me straight back to the racks of kits in the newsagents (Yes, they were sold in paper shops) and agonising over whether it's going to be the Spitfire or the Me 109, a whole Saturday afternoon of pleasure and fantasy......, life seemed so much simpler then, I guess that's 100% hindsight at work?

    Amazingly this was only twenty three years after the end of the Second World War, in today's terms 1991.......it was all still quite real for all of my elders.

    TonyS

    SR71 Story

    in Aircraft Cold War

    Posted

    I can highly recommend Brian Schull's inspirational video on his story of his quest to survive incredible burns and then get into the Blackbird program

    His photography is brilliant with two superb books both share great reading and beautiful images.

    Darren

    Thank you so much for posting that. I watched it all spellbound. What a great vid.

    It brought back so many memories from Air Fete, I miss it SOOOOOO much, I don't think we'll ever see it's like again unfortunately, but I feel privileged to have been there so many times and to have so many wonderful memories.

    I bought a copy of Sled Driver on publication for £25.00, I looked on EBay and the only copy on there is at £485.00.....

    ....that makes it the best investment I have ever made (albeit unwittingly)!

    TonyS

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