Head in the clouds.

A cracker and the figure painting is superb too rounding it all up very nicely indeed.

Thats a cracking southern Sukhoi Martin and up to your usual high standards.

Thanks Pete. I am on the mend now and see light at the end of the tunnel, just the seasonal lurgy caused by I don't know what. Your offer of seats is most generous Pete and I will gladly accept them if you do find them, it will save me an hour setting up a production line for them...😀. Unloading a Puma! Not many can say they have done that and I certainly cannot.. How have you found your first few weeks of retirement? Still in that holiday period where everything seems good and fresh but still keeping busy and wondering what retirement actually means?😉 Cheers Gary.

I have a confession, my last post omitted some detail in respect of the seats. Now, i haven't been sitting down on the job but after posting the last post I mentioned that the Italeri seats looked more like a car seat than a pilot seat and to be fair it still does, but what I failed to notice was that the seat I was comparing belonged to the Nav station and not the pilot/co pilot. And to add salt to the wound a C130H and not a C130K as the H has 2 seat postions for the Nav but the K has only the one. (Disclaimer; always willing to be corrected 🙂). This now leaves me with 5 seats to find or build, 4 for the Airfix as this omits the flight engineers postion and 1 for the Italeri. While looking into the little issue above I noticed something that I had not seen before and it regards the Flight Engineers seat; Unknown copyright, if you know please contact me so I may credit the image. Looking at the Engineers seat, in particular, the base, the triangular base sits on at an angle in relation the the base of the pilots seat and it looks like it is on rails/sliders. I then found this image; Copyright Todd Lappin. Here we can see the angled raised section that supports the seat. Although this image looks like that from a C130J the one above it is from a C130K of 38Sq and both seem to have the same base layout.The pictures are decades apart but show the same arrangement so it may be fair to say this is as it should be. None of the kits show this accurately but our friends from Ukraine come closest. The 'to do' list keeps getting longer...😄. From a build point of view I now need to decide which kit gets the attention, in all honesty little will be seen through the glazing so my initial thoughts are the Italeri kit which will become Snoopy and have most doors open will most definitely be modified, the Zvezda kit will be left as is. This has the raised area but is not angled, unfortunately it is already fixed and the truncated triangular seat swivel mount is molded on. The Airfix is a blank canvas compared to the others. One of my modelling ethos is not to spend valuable time on detail that in all probability will not be seen even though my zest for the build very much wants too. This is a big build and if I super detailed each kit in areas that you can't see from the other side of a table....well, the kits may never get to the table, we have all been there where our mojo just goes on an unplanned holiday and doesn't give us a return date, I am having to try to stop that happening. Detailing each cargo bay will not happen, only on Snoopy, I know some say 'well, I know it's there where it should be' or 'it's not finished if you don't do the internals'. Fine, if that's your thing but it is not mine so no inner tubes on the tyres or days spent on cargo bays that will be in darkness once the fuselage is closed up. This is the Italeri cockpit area that I have now started, and is the main focus of my time on the cockpit front. It can be seen that the angled section for the engineers seat is not represented so this will be scratch built. Also, you can see where plasticard has been inserted into the two nav station seat locations ready for the fitting of the one found on RAF Kites.....am I allowed to call them ' Kites'?😄 This is how Zvezda thinks it looks; And Airfix which is even missing the Engineeers seat; While trying to figure out the cockpit conundrum my limited attention span found a new distraction, the two inlets on the front of the U/C sponsons. On the port side the inlet is high up and in line the with the window seen here where the silver tape is; Copyright Rick Ingham by kind permission. On the starboard side the inlet is bigger and further back as seen here; So how do the kits compare? Both Italeri and Zvezda kits are pretty much spot on, the Airfix kit has it wrong in that both are large and the port side inlet is slightly in the wrong position: Not sure how I am going to fix this yet, time to scratch a few more hairs off my already balding head! When I started this modelling session I thought I had a good couple of hours to shift some plastic and make some progress on the cockpits, the reality was that I had 40 mins modelling and over an hour and a half trying to confirm the research info for the points discussed above. Add to that my wandering off down another avenue altogether regarding the inlets and my time was gone and by the afternoon I felt like death warmed up again and in no mood to model anything. On the subjects of inlets the port side is for the gas turbine compressor but what is the starboard side for? All C130 cutaway drawings I have seen are from the port aspect. Have a good weekend folks.

I have been a poorly chap recently, man-flu wrapped it's arms around me and still hasn't let go 7 days on, of coarse, everyone to a man has been asking, 'is it Covid'? No, it isn't, can't blame it for everything can we! . It was a weird one though, felt better then worse, however, in the good time I managed a couple of hours at the bench before succumbing to more of this seasonal misery... Remember those windows I blanked out, front 3, both sides, well, I thought I had better drill them out before I forget about it later in the build. My main concern with doing this was that when I drilled the 4mm diameter holes for the windows it would dislodge the blanking plates and I would be back at square 1 and a less than perfect hole to re blank; so how to mitigate this? Back to basics was the answer. Start with a 1mm drill bit, then 2.5,3.5,and finally 4mm, removing only a little at a time puts less stress into the plastic. So, first get my centres and drill the 1mm holes; Then 2.5mm; And finally 4mm; I know I missed the 2.5mm hole pic but I am pretty suer I can be forgiven.. And a bit of masking tape confirms the result I was after and best of all nothing fell orf...result; With a result under my belt I pondered which bit of Albert I will attack next. Considering most aircraft builds start with the office I thought that would be a good place to go so let us see what we have. First up was the Zvezda cockpit, with around 43 components it is a mini build in itself but all of those components are crisp and fit well. For you money you get a flight crew which for 1/72 go together very well with positive locators for the arms; When fitted in the seats they fit perfectly and look like they were molded as one, the lap belt seen on the outside crew look good when he is fitted to the chair; As for the rest of the cockpit it all goes together well with no major issues; As you can see the seats are missing, more of which in a moment. Before I got carried away I thought a test fit would be prudent, it is easier to hack away at the plastic now rather than when all those weak and feeble items are fitted; No problems there then. Now the Airfix offering. This comprises of only 14 parts, this includes the front U/C wheel bay and U/C leg, a third less than the Zvezda but right on the money for the period, kits predominately from this era had the most basic of cockpits and this is no exception; What of the crew I hear you say; Now then, something got me running to my computer after I took this pic and after looking at several pics it came to me, you are more likely to see an Albert crew wearing nothing on their heads other than comms or the odd baseball cap. I reckon these 3 fighter jockeys found their way into the wrong aircraft. Now, before you shoot me down there are a few pics out there showing them all with 'bone domes' but according to what I have seen this is probably the exception and not the norm. Anyone know why this is? Altitude limitations on the Hercules perhaps and no ejector seats? As for the figures, they look OK to me and for what you will see through the glazzing more than adequate. Now then, back to the seats... I opened up the Italeri box to start that but only got as far as picking up a seat for comparison with the others, the old lurgy was starting to bite again; Here are the 3 seats, Italeri (left), Airfix and Zvezda. None of them are perfect but the Zvezda is closest with armrests,headrest and general shape. The Airfix seat looks like a 12th century wooden chair found in a monastery or abbey and the Italeri seat looks like something found in a Ford Escort Mk2 Mexico or later RS. What mix of interpretations of the same thing. Now then, I am trying not to get too hung up on the cockpit as very little will be seen and any embellishment will take up precious time on what is going to be a long build. Snoopy (Italeri) will have the bulk of time spent on it, the others not so much. It is therefore only the Airfix seat at this time that needs chopping about, separate the headrest, fit armrests and that will do. The Italeri seat will be going into the bin and a phoenix will rise in the form of scratchbuilt seats....more blinkin work.... Thanks for looking.

Good to see you with us Darren, another scratchbuilder is always good and there are some good ones here abouts so you will not be alone.

I will be there Pete but hope to leave the rain at home this time.

I am starting to look at the Zvezda cockpit and and looking at a few of the pics I have of Snoopy's cockpit and a random one off the web and it shows the floor in the cockpit area as being a reddish brown, does that seem right? Grey predominates throughout the Snoopy in the cargo area so not sure why it would change in the office.

No worries @heloman1, my only expertise is on nothing so the greater breadth of interest and oversight can only help with my WIP. Welcome aboard,👍

Hi Pete. Thanks Pete, the proof will be in the pudding when I spray on the primer. There are indeed sponsons of different lengths and the Zvezda kit gives you both choices that are relevent to the H model, the K has the shorter wheel sponsons of the E and the early H models, later H models had the longer sponson. Thanks for the typo correction, my fingers and brain vary rarely work in sink...😂 Yes, I figured you did a flyby as I am sure that you cannot see the scaffold around my house from your place, leaky roof you know!. The downside of owning a two story house is that any jobs on the roof/gutter line needs a scaff and it isn't cheap, I may have to scale back on the build to only one C130..😉 . While it is up I am giving it a good paint and checking the seal around the windows etc. Retirement, how lovely, I am still a little way off but I wish you a long and happy retirement Pete, well earned if I may say. I suppose now we can expect a 1/24 scale Death Star with detachable top showing all internal detail....😵. Cheers Gary.

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post due in part the carrying out grandparent duties over last weekend which required a visit to see Mable on Skegness beach, watch the seals being fed at Sealife World and spending a fortune in pound coins on those little ride on cars only for him to take a shine to one which was out of order, you couldn't write it! To be fair, I probably did the same to my parents. The upshot of this is I have been doing bits and bobs when I can. The first job is to finish the wing fillets, the card support was done earlier so it was a case of picking my weapon of choice with which to fill, I chose Mr Surfacer because the fillet is a complicated shape and I can use a cotton bud soaked in self leveling thinner to try and shape it. I did one side first time but the other side took several attempts to get it right, an annoying air bubble that didn't want to disappear didn't help; With that annoying little job out the way it was time to look at the sink marks,the Airfix kit has many areas of sink particularly where there are internal details or large chunks of plastic with a small cavity, the Beaver tail is a point in case; The rear fuselage around the ramp area is also affected but more so on the port side, the starboard having very little sink; This really only showed up after I had removed all the raised panel lines. Also affected was locating pins on the fuselage; o be fair this is nothing more than I expected from a kit of this vintage, all it means is another job to bring it up to scratch....oh joy! These will be filled with Mr Surfacer, the fuselage sink will be filled with good old Milliput. Wrapped in foil and immersed in a cup of just boiled water for a few minutes it becomes more workable and is best mixed this way too, I have been getting better results since doing this. Anyway, it was larraped all over the rear end; Lord it looks a mess but after sanding with water it works out OK; Maybe a little more sanding is needed but for now it will be left. One other little thing I noticed was the left hand cheek window opening on the left fuselage half, it has a downward slant towards the wings. A simple fix with a bit of plasticard after it has been straightened out will sort it. With that all done, it was the turn of the Italeri kit and that missing chine. I have never come across any evidence of this being tackled before so I have no yardstick with which to draw on and as such I am shooting from the hip and have no idea if my plan will bear fruit. First of all I had to figure out how this can be done, one train of thought was to remove the lower fuselage and make a new section, cutting from the lower and forward edge of the crew access door back to the sponsons. Another was to build up (or should that be down?) the lower fuselage, just how would take a few hours to figure out. In the following pic it can be seen how the fuselage is not the perfect round tube but one that is flattened on it's bottom third. It can be seen that the chine pretty much starts at the bottom of the red bar/cargo floor join on the port side. I can't find the car wheel on the sprues though! 😄 Again, the change is subtle. After much thought I have decided to build up the bottom part of the fuselage with strips of evergreen strip of varying thickness blended into the fuselage at the bottom and with Milliput blended into the side of the fuselage. My logic was this; it is easier to scribe into plastic than filler and you get a better result than can be cleaned up with liquid cement, although, some filler has to be used and as Milliput dries rock hard I felt it was the best choice. I was going to buy some car filler but never got around to it. Starting on the starboard side of the fuselage I laid down 3 strips of 40thou plastic up to the sponson and 1 stripe of 20thou plastic, this one being wider than the previous 3; This add on plastic will be sanded to shape in a way that is common to anyone reading this. I started to repeat this on the port side of the fuselage; Then I had a 'DOH' moment. It will be easier if I glue on the front of the sponson, so I did. I better do the other side I thought to myself and went in search of the other sponson, not realising that it is molded onto the other fuselage half already. It wasn't until checking the instructions that it became clear there is only one. Number 42 middle top, hiding in plain sight... 🤦‍♂️I still do not understand why Italeri would mold one on and one off but it bamboozled me for ten minutes! After fixing the plastic strip in place the Milliput was now added above the top strip and Mr Surfacer placed between any gaps between the plastic strips. Milliput never looks pretty on first application but it sands beautifully and you can get an almost glass finish to it; After a couple of hours of joyous sanding we have this; One of my main concerns was that by adding extra girth to the lower fuselage I would have trouble where it meets the sponson, I have added some Mr Surfacer filler and I am hoping I can blend it all together, this was one of the unknowns when I chose this method. Where the Milliput meets the top edge of the plastic strip there is now a definite lip, while not very visible it is obvious to the touch. Hopefully it will show under paint. When it is finished being blended in I will give it a squirt of primer and see what we have. As ever, thanks for looking.

Pleased to see this released after a 40 year gap, got mine on order quick this time. Worth it just for the Roy Cross artwork.

Works of art, no more, no less. When I see builds like this from the golden age of speed records I feel that I will end up going off on another modelling tangent.

That diorama is really starting to look good Pete with all your builds making it come to life. A great idea if I may say...👍

Superb work Michael, the nuances on the fabric are incredible and superbly done.

Fantastic and frightening in equal measure, I now need to go and watch the film.....I think!

I agree with @Armorrich that canvas is something to behold, the rest of the build too is superb and full of interest. Great job.

Superbly done and great subject matter.

Fantastic balance to your paint schemes, probably the best yet for me.

Superb.

As ever a good eye for the detail and picking the bones of PE sets is often a full time task in itself. I don't think I have ever found a set that is near to perfect yet so I feel your pain, I think it is more about picking out what works for you. My PE boneyard is full of part used sets. As for the panel lines at least you have some..😉I have two to re-scribe so say a prayer for me please..🙏. With regard to the engine nacelle fit issues that one has gone in the notebook..👍 Onwards and upwards dear sir.

Lucky we all build models then as that and the history books will be all that's left to look at. This news really does sadden me because, and correct me if I am wrong the RAF has Hendon to tell the RAF story, then we have the IWM which is spread over several sites ( Duxford, Cosford) so why do we need more Tornado F3's and the like. For me the protoypes and experimental aircraft are often unique in their purpose and their existence, they often have dramatic stories attached to them from an engineering and test pilot point of view and as such really do need preserving. Their story is as much entwined with the RAF as Spitfires, Sopwith Camels and Radar to name a few and much of the work done was to the RAF's benefit so I don't see how you remove one from the other. The irony is that FAST at Farnborough would be a natural home for many of these airframes as it's remit is closest to these airframes designed purpose but they have been trying to acquire some land directly behind the museum that currently sits on the current airfield and is unused. Unfortunately, the owners of Farnborough seem unwilling to even listen. Why o why! As previously mentioned the story is much bigger than just Spitfires and more Spitfires both from the human perspective and the engineering perspective, they should compliment each other in the story of our nations aviation heritage. 😟

Just got my magazine and it says, again, it will be in two halls as they are not willing to risk the financial stability of IPMS on maybe's, maybe more traders, maybe more public, maybe more.... which I get. I just hope this is a temporary thing and it doesn't keep contracting, that I fear would be counter productive. Anyway, there will be a questionnaire so members can have their say on how they feel it should go.

You have been hanging around me too long Pete, whatever next, 3 ship build 😉? That is good use of a nice pair of 'Bristols', one I have not thought of before, your imagination know no bounds.

Hunting H126 would get my heart beating(more), top marks to DW for this.