Head in the clouds.

Superb job and one of my favourite looking planes, it just shouts 'power'!

Well, I build kits as a nipper with my mate, purchased Saturday morning, built by tea and on the attrition list by bedtime, we did sometimes get a whole weekend of play but only when the weather forced flying to cease. Picked up the hobby again six years ago in my 49th year and continued to play build but with a more focused endeavour. I went for anything at first but could not build up the wow factor, then, for some unknown reason something clicked and I decided on mainly British prototypes and experimental aircraft and helicopters. When I thought about it these planes are often only fleeting, doing initial work and then because they have been altered too much or not at all, are then scrapped. Their story is often just like the life of Mayfly, it waits to fly and when it does it is for but a short time; then fades away. Experimental type scan be similar, modification in March and de modified by December, although some stay a good while and carry many bits of kit through their life. The bonus here is I can use mainstream kits....sometimes. Never making things easy for myself this subject matter is sometimes not catered for by mainstream manufactures and the kits never fall together, most of my kits are cottage industry kits from dedicated producers who make kits to varying degrees of quality, from very good to very bad. Then there are the decals, many have to be home printed or mixed and matched. Research material too can be thin on the ground. But this brings us to the 'rub' of the subject. I have to put in a lot of effort to turn a sours ear into silk with much chopping, scratchbuilding and researching so the final result is most pleasurable to behold. I think if I built any of those lovely kits that are available the hobby probably would not be so satisfying for me. What could be better than taking an old kit or a poor cottage kit and making it into something original. Mind you, the build rate is non too quick and my hair loss only accelerates with each build but who cares, it will only turn grey and wire like. However, to have a broad range of skills you do need to do other things so I do have/done a few Terra firma vehicles for the club, built the Bluebird K7 and have the Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Hood kit with lots of shiny brass. This will be built in remembrance of my great uncle whom went down with his ship and companions on that fateful day in the Denmark Straights. Right....back to mangling kits.

Either way is is going to be a lot busier here.

I like your thinking on this one Pete, much going on to keep us entertained. I agree with Gorby, diorama to finish it all off.

It would fit, the base is all about RAF intel gathering. The second aircraft is interesting, a General Atomics design...a drone? And the construction is on the A15 side near the WAVE facility.

I started watching the build Pete then got busy and hey presto, here it is in RFI, boy, you are on the move. Nice result and another nice mix 'n' match. Wish I had a couple of canon on my bike.

Some major work starting here soon, 2 new hangers, 2 new types of aircraft and up to 1000 more staff. Linky thingie; https://www.insidermedia.com/news/midlands/major-plans-revealed-to-expand-raf-base

Done. To be fair it is not a huge amount they are asking for so I would be shocked and disappointed it they did not reach their target. Good luck Bootneck.

Cheers Pete. As luck would have it it still grows on the sides so some reserves still left Thanks Andy. I am hoping a picture turns up showing the lens with some sort of in flight shield in place to protect the lens then problem solved. Not putting my house on it though. I first need an appropriate globe that is hollow and then my nightmares can start... already sweating just typing this. Thank you hendie, it does look nice when it all comes together, alas, it will be covered in paint and everyone will be non the wiser. A nice material to work with though, strong for modelling easy to work and the option to solder it all together.

Good evening one and all. A small update tonight, and it is all to do with precious metal. Brass to be precise. Having made the sponson rear mounting brackets it was now time to mount them. I can't remember if I mentioned it in my last previous posts but I intentionally left the side plates long so as I can cut slots into the airframe and slide them home. After several measurements being taken and checked and I made my move and made the first incision, well, a hole to be precise. A small hole was drilled on the mark; Next, I needed to elongate the holes and for this I used a very small broach that I purchased when I took up modelling about 5 years ago, can't for the life of me remember where I purchased them and to be fair they do not come out very often but for this job they are perfect; The only problem with them is that they are very thin and to get a precise,straight line is very hard indeed so I put my micro saw to good use; Next stage was to widen the slot as it still was not wide enough to accept the bracket. This time I used a slightly bigger saw to finish the job; Now with 4 nice slots it was time to see if I got my measurements right and blow me,they slotted in lovely. After a little manoeuvring into place I fixed them with thin CA; And to'ther side; A little filler here and there and job done. Now for the tricky bit; mounting these slabs of brass onto the model in a way that looks true to the real thing but strong enough to be handled. Hmmm! On the 1/1 model there are two small bars that come down at 45 degrees from the underside of the bracket to the bottom corners of the sponsons. For me this would be too weak as the bars could only be made of very thin rod and connecting them to the bottom corners of the sponsons would be problematic so a new approach was needed. After some head scratching( this is why I am bald) I decided to do the following; Make L shaped plate. Drill 2 small holes in said plate and rear ofsponson. Make 2 pins Insert into plate. And then into sponson. And glue with Super Thin Hot CA (This stuff is the work of the devil, it goes everywhere like some alien blob) ( and it burns!) Here are a few pics; The idea for the L shaped bracket is for the short leg of the L to sit on the inside of the front face of the bracket and then be soldered in place.....hopefully. This will give a much stronger fix. Next up was the bracket at the front which holds the mounting body for the large camera, it can be seen here at the front of the sponson; Copyright FAST. For this I used a similar approach as i did for the rear brackets but for now I have omitted the web plate at the bottom of the housing. More pics; Also added are a plate on each sponson, no idea of it's purpose but it is there so it is going on. Here they are together; The holes are for the mounting pin that will sit in the camera mounting box in the earlier pic. Offered up to the mothership for comparison; That sorts out the back and the front, now for the middle which will be the other support point for the sponson. This consists of what looks like a damper as can be seen here, sitting at about 30 deg fixed to the top of the sponson, the starboard is easier to see than port; Copyright FAST Not sure what to do here. It needs to be solid but again to scale (damned 1/72 kits....just kidding). I could drill straight into the fuselage and dress it up after or I could make a brass mounting with hole in bottom to accept damper and hole in front to fix to fuselage. That is a lot of holes in a very small item.... I shall remove some more hair from my scalp and come back to this later. Thanks for looking.

Braver man than I, once that decal is in place I don't even breath on it. I will have to give it a go though Bill, I have some old carpet thickness decals to practice on.

Thanks @Ex-FAAWAFU, on the to do list this weekend.

Most bikers the universe over do not think too much about stopping, it's all about forward movement, that what brings the grin onto the face. However, brakes are welcome especially when a cafe approaches.... Can the anti gravity unit switch so that it acts like two poles of the same polarity opposing each other? ( way out my depth here)

Something to look forward to when my time comes

When technology works it can be very pleasing and surprising in equal measure. Is the app available as an open source or is it to be purchased, it sounds like a very useful tool? Take the credit you never know when the next plaudit may come