Nocoolname

No you’re thinking of the River Spey

Indeed, River Avon for a start (the River River 🤔)

“Pilot” please set course zero zero seven and select package for deployment… ”AI… would you prefer a toll free course? Also we have multiple deployment packages available from our ‘sponsors’, please select the one that suits your budget 🥴

Hi Michael, that’s fantastic and really kind, thank you. The B737 ones sound like they might do the trick. I’ll send you my address by PM.

Great to see the progress on this one! 👍 I’ve followed your cue and kept my 1/72 build as sub assemblies for ease of painting pretty much as you’ve described. I really like your approach to the lighting and curious about the issues you experienced with hot glue. The lighting kit for my big enterprise requires the use of hot glue and I’m now wary of using it so might try something similar to your method. Because I hate painting I’m getting my WIP’s all lined up to hit the spray booth at the same time, some for their first coat of primer, others such as Eagle 1, for their finishing coats. Look forward to seeing the next pics.

I very nearly flogged my Harrier kit on a certain auction site but the prices people were hoping to pay were frankly taking the p… p… p… proverbial, so I pulled the plug before the bids and having seen this build, glad I did, as I’m now going to start work on it!

Spooky! 👻

Hi folks, might sound like a strange ask (and I’m hoping this is the right place) but could anyone with any 1/144 airliner kits that include clear styrene windows, please do me a favour and share the measurements for the windows themselves? Reason for the ask? I’m hoping to find some clear styrene windows that are close to 2.5x2mm in dimension. Exact would be great, but close enough is good enough. I have a 1/72 Concorde build that’s been held up for ages due to a head scratcher around the cabin windows. I had a custom light kit made several years back to light up the cabin as well as the rest of the aircraft but this requires glazing in the windows. I had tried rods of clear and opaque styrene but the results were far too time consuming and frankly terrible. As was the idea of using clear fix or PVA with a cocktail stick. So I set about designing a set of windows in CAD with the intention of having them printed in frosted clear resin but the 3D printing service has all gone a bit wibly-wobbly, plus as an experienced user of such facilities, it’s a lot more (expensive) trial and error than I would like. Then an idea popped into my head. It might be totally daft and come to naught but I thought it worth a shot before ponying up the money for more 3D experimentation. I saw the plastic windows for the old 1/100 Playfix Trident and wondered if they might be a fit but they were wrong size/shape. Then I thought of the old airliner kits I used to love as a kid (and still have a soft spot for) and remember that most of the 1/144 kits included clear styrene windows and I wondered if at that scale they might be around the size of the windows for the 1/72 Concorde? Yes I know from all the reviews and posts that the windows on the 1/72 Concorde are too big but I’m not for faffing with them. They look good enough for my wonky eyes. I just want to light them. But if, say, the windows from one of the Airfix 1:144 Boeing series (707/727/737/747) or even some of the more recent Zvezda kits (or reboxings) including Airbus models, happen to be close to 2.5x2mm it might be a lot easier for me to grab one of them kits and steal and carve up the windows. So if anyone with such a kit in their stash could please do me a favour and check the window dimensions, if even to put me out of my misery that they are way off the 2.5x2mm mark it would be really appreciated. Many thanks! Nocool!

Indeed, wasn’t she instrumental in the development of frequency hopping spread spectrum systems? Absolutely incredible!

‘The archaeology of archaeology’… surely that would make a good PhD thesis, if not a book? 😉

I may be up for this. I got rid of most kits that I may have previously regarded as the worst in the stash but still have my Airfix boxing of the MPC Space:1999 Eagle Transporter from c. 1976. It’s not the worst for build problems - the kit is fairly easy to assemble and has a relatively low parts count - it’s the worst in terms of shape and design accuracy and lack of detail. I originally bought the MPC boxing of this with the intention of trying to build something resembling the Eagle but ended up working on extensive modifications then replacing most of the parts with custom designed pieces in resin and PE until I parked the project a few years before Round 2 came to the rescue with their new tooled kits. This boxing was bought mainly for nostalgia reasons since it was the kit I was given as a 7 year old fan of the series, but my intention is to build it as a WIF prototype Eagle to the ‘proper’ ones released later by Round 2. It would be mostly out of the box save for some nice 3D printed landing gear, aluminium engines and thrusters and resin inserts, along with the decals from the most recent MPC boxing.

You’re not alone. I tried building the F-4J as a VX-9 bird but stalled at the fuselage assembly due to ill fitting parts and the need for filler, then cleanup, adjustment, scribing etc leaving parts less than perfect. Despite all the work I had put into the cockpit and initial assembly I lost interest cause of this and it’s been consigned to its box since.

I think it really is a case of the right tool (in this case glue) for the job in question. I tend to use CA when the materials require it (i.e. resin or other material that doesn’t suit polystyrene cement) and/or for delicate parts that will not be exposed to outside knocking/scuffing etc. I find that CA can provide a brilliant instant hold (as your comments about fingers suggest… far too much experience of that 😂) but also gets quite brittle over time. This has led to many external parts simply breaking off in a way that would not have been the case had they been styrene and welded using polystyrene cement. But despite advances in injection moulding most of the best detail parts, including external (I’m thinking vanes, probes and undercarriage details especially) are either resin or PE so CA remains an essential tool for me. So for my part, I’ve never been a ‘one size or one glue fits all’ but rather use what best suits the circumstances kind of person. I’m just about to add two-stage epoxy to the tool kit, to cement turned aluminium parts to a kit I’m finishing up so that’s another new experience.

Talking of old films being trotted out (especially with ropey FX) I watched the 70’s version of ‘The Land that Time Forgot’ while I was laid up. Then I watched Spartacus, followed by The Vikings. It was a long recovery I can tell you

I heard the film was never intended to have any bike scenes but eventually did when Steve suggested he would only take part if they were included? He was a serious motorcycle rider and it gave him a chance to demonstrate.