Head in the clouds.

You may have the American English version as I have Pete, it may like it if you put airplane however..😱. I really must get it changed as I end up double checking everything and still getting wrong. Names are very important, get it wrong and your new piece of kit just wont have that 'punch' that it so deserves. I like Sturmdohle. Spellchecker doesn't though..🤣

You can see where the effort and work went onto in this kit, great craftmanship with the weathering.

Very original way to display your model, you may be onto something here

Very nicely done Jon, I can remember seeing these at Waddo and at the time the Swiff AF had some lovely aircraft in their ranks. I can't however remember the Wadddington countryside looking that resplendent..😉

General Aircraft GAL 56 tailess glider, nobody liked flying it and a bag of nails by all accounts.

Wise words Pete. Of all the PE sets I have ever purchased I only ever use about half /two thirds because sometimes it offers no real improvement but can bring it's own issues of scale and accuracy. And those instructions....aaaaah!

Very smart indeed and great weathering, definitely worth the fight to finish it.

A real nice job Rob and working as I often do with very old kits I know what it takes to bash them into shape. Also your decals really lift it too.

It's now Friday and all is good, it is cold enough outside to make Rudolph think twice about flying but I don't care as I am snug as a bug in a rug. So a quick update is now due. Back to the inside and I am still working on the cockpit and surrounding area, most kits start with the cockpits being done early on so why should I go against convention, with the Airfix cockpit well on it's way I thought I would have a look at the Italeri office. After doing a test fit of the cockpit assembly I noticed that the the cockpit floor needed opening up a little on the laft as you would ascend the access steps. The black line shows the extent of material to be removed; This cockpit has now received the same treatment as the Airfix kit with consoles and cupboards being built from plasticard following my measurements from the earlier exercise; There are a few embellishments to this cockpit that the others will not have, the first being the Nav position. On his right the console returns under the bunk at a slight angle and because of this the jump seat has been shortened ( unlike the Zvezda in the middle which is too long) and a framework built to support the cushion. To the right of the jump seat is some boxing with a small grab handle on it to aid access to the cockpit, the boxing is just visible to the left of the fire extinguisher and will be observable when the crew access door is open. The final alteration is the crew bunk, this has been moved more to the left and the headrest section cut and folded over as it would be while not in use. Again, pictures of this area are like hens teeth so I have used the Duke Hawkins book and the pics I have from FAST to come up with how I thing Snoopy will look. Planning ahead, the next move should be to paint these 3 cockpits, add any other tiny details to Snoopy's consoles, add decals and then fix any other items needed to finish this area off. On the subject of decals I will need to rummage through the spares box to see if there are any i can use to represent all the AC Bus's and fuses which are located on the middle and lower sections of the consoles as seen here; I now feel that I have had enough of cockpits for a little while so I though I would do some iron work, I spun the Zvezda cockpit upside down and started to look at the Metallic Details PE set for the wheel wells, remember, the Zvezda kit is going to be the TP400 FTB with one of the wheel bay door removed. If I am doing one I may as well do all three if only to use up the PE set. And what of the PE set? On initial inspection the detail is good and clear but once you start to study the instructions things get a little fuzzy. The colour system of identifying various functions and parts is not clear at all, blue denotes fold points, items to push out and items to add, red denotes items to be removed from the kit item and items to be added from the fret. Add to this the fold arrows not being very clear as to which way to fold there are plenty of opportunities to get it wrong because to add insult to injury none of the numbers on the fret tally with the drawing. Also, some items seem to have more on the fret than the drawing calls out for...🤔 After nearly an hour of sorting this puzzle out I could finally start work. First up was to remove the red area from the kit item, this is a substantial part of the underside of the cockpit area and therefore it's strength; This was done with a few strokes of the saw but as I suspected leaving the whole weight of the front end resting on two pillars no more than 2-3mm dia so this was reinforced with some scrap from the off cut and white plasticard; Once this was done, various bits were cut from the fret and folded where needed but one other item decided to fight back, part 14 ( not it's real name, that would be part 15..🤣 ), The instructions , in blue, tell you to press them out, little slots no more than 1mm wide but the reverse of the fret is not scored or perforated so they do not want to be 'pushed out'! The only way to remove them was to use a scriber and gently push through the PE, working both sides to try and smooth out the opening; As can be seen it worked but at a cost, the fold line failed and the small section fell off. After folding the main section without any issues (yet) I called it a draw and withdrew to the smoking room for a cigar and a glass of port; Join me next week for more cryptic puzzles and head scratching.

That's pure gold, cheers Rob. It is after all nice to know what these things are called especially when becoming very familiar with them 3 times over.

Thanks @Steve McArthur, I think I am getting myself into a self induced spin, because they seem to be numbered differently to the stations on a diagram from an earlier post I thought they were relating to something different .

Thank you Bertie, that was my assumption, they being used along with the larger pallet position markers but knowing that datum position and the first number would be a great help. I know that there is a 'no load area' from FS245 to FS257 so maybe the latter is the start point. Cheers Gary.

Hi Dale and welcome to BM. You have chosen a good time to start modelling with so many great products out there and to back it all up you now have the oracle that is this forum, it is full of support and guidance so don't be afraid to ask, someone somewhere will know. Gary.

After posting a question regarding Fuselage Station numbers and getting a great response I just need to pin down some markings on the soundproofing, no amount of web surfing throws up anything useful. They can be seen in the pic below; The bold black cTd under the danger sign is I understand, the pallet position location marks, however it is the small vertical black lines with a number underneath that I am interested in. I don't think they are Flight Station numbers as they go, for example, 297.0-317.0-337.0 in 20" intervals, however these smaller rise in 10's, for example; 310, 320, 330. It is these numbers that will allow me to locate some of the equipment I want to put into Snoopy from pics I have of Snoopy's hold. I have only found them in the cargo bay and with reference to FS245 which is my datum, what number do these smaller markings start at? Hopefully I have not bored anyone but any clarification will be most helpful and if the answer was posted elsewhere please signpost for me. Thanks folks. Gary

Love it Pete, if I squint and shake my head it looks like an A10...😉 Great work on those engines, there is some tidy detail in there, and a very novel way of doing a mottle paint scheme, just don't tell the wife.

Cheers @TheyJammedKenny!. With regard to the seats I am not going any further with detailing the cockpit on the Airfix kit, the Italeri kit probably will follow your suggestion though and as regards the Flight Engineer, he is far from forgotten. He will get a posterior resting place.

Here, here, nice to see a civvie Mossie and nicely built too.

This is my first post in a couple of weeks, due mainly to the matter of a little model show somewhere in Shropshire, it turned out to be a very good weekend and as ever I was amazed at the standard of model building on show, for me the star being the Mulberry Harbour scene which must have taken years to build; much like my builds 🤪. Also, SWMBO collared me for some decorating fun time so that was another weekend ticked off along with some dodgy cutting in 🤬! When I did finally pick up some tools one of the first jobs I tackled was the air conditioning vent on the starboard side U/C sponson, the Airfix and Italeri kits had no representation of this at all and the Zvezda did god bless em but it was a tad to small to my eye. Luckily, on my way to SMW I managed a couple of hours at Cosford and measured the vent on the preserved C130 there and my suspicions were confirmed; too short and too shallow. With a drill and small round file this was a simple fix; Every time I pick up a component of these kits I find differences around every corner and another one is the grill behind the cockpit on the starboard side. All 3 kits have this grille molded onto the fuselage side so it screams for improvement with so PE, this offering a sharper look and depending on which PE, more detail. One other point I noted, Airfix and Zvezda have a similar sized grill while Italeri has a smaller representation. Looking at pictures it seems to my eye at least that the actual size is somewhere between all three ( I did not have my ladder in my pocket at Cosford to measure it😁) but what will inform me is which PE set is best. If we go right back ( a full 3 pages) to the beginning of this tread, 2 sets of external PE were mentioned, Eduard for the Italeri and Metalic Details for the other two. Here is the Metalic Details grille sat on top and next to the Eduard set; For me the Matalic Details grille is streets ahead of the Eduard item, the former has more detail on the fins of the grill and it has two folds, the bottom just visible, to give a positive fixing point to the plastic, the Eduard has no such fold and would be less sturdy when fixed in. One other point, I would need to buy another two Eduard sets that are twice the price of the Metalic Details set. So now we can get them fitted in a similar way to how I moved the Naca duct, the Italeri opening was enlarged vertically to sit on the same plane as the other two; Each was slightly different and this can be seen clearly on the Airfix kit with white plastic card at the top to drop it down slightly, the Italeri was enlarged and Zvezda was untouched. Always front and centre of my thoughts are that although I am building the same airframe it is from 3 different kits of an aircraft that had a service life of 40 odd years, some changes were subtle, some were obvious. At this stage it is about getting the basic airframe as true and correct as I can. After all the work on the grilles however, I still can find no reference as to it's purpose, looking at it's location I would guess that it may be something to do with cockpit equipment as it falls forward of FS245. When you see those wonderful cutaway drawings in various books they only ever show the port side, which is annoying as i thought planes had a starboard side too..🤬 After monkeying about on outside detail for a while I haven't forgotten about the cockpit. I started to build the consoles for the Airfix cockpit as a dry run for the Italeri kit , the pilots side was built earlier on this page and I have now built the Nav station; The pilots side console has since been moved over at the front a little and all measurements recorded with a drawing ready for the next one. Made from nothing more than plasticard there was more 'suck it and see' than there was applied science to make them however after some dry fits and fettling they seem to fit nicely; Now I know it fits I can look to painting and fitting the other seats, one other was noted and that is the fact the steps up into the cockpit need to be further over to the right but as these will be unseen they can stay as they are.

I have spent a very pleasant few hours catching up on this thread and it has now drawn me in. Your work is superb Steve and this accompanied with a very informative and yet interesting narrative keeps me wanting more, the narrative is something I have not yet mastered so that itself is a WIP. What I find fascinating is the build methods and materials often match the original which in itself gives a more direct connection to the real subject and allows people such as myself to understand better how these ships were built years ago. Your attention to detail is superb and is drawing me in further still. Permission to come aboard?

I swear by them, one of my preferred tools when slicing and dicing. I have some very fine ones by RB Productions but looking at their website non were mentioned.

Hi Ryan. I too have this conversion from @BritJet so I will be watching to see how this pans out for you and I am sure you will be OK, just remember the old adage, measure twice-cut once.

Well, you don't see many of them but I am glad I saw yours, superb in every way...👍

Thanks for the photo Martin, I can now print and mark everyones names on it as I will forget by next year. I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with folks from BM and talking to some new fellows whom I see on the forum but had not yet met. It also gave me a chance to thank @RidgeRunner for carrying half a ton of mags from the multi storey car park to the TIC for a friend to collect on my behalf at a previous SMW....top man👍. I also bumped into a few again during the show, @Courageous, @Flying Badger for more modelling waffle. While sat at our table, again engaged in war waffle, @general melchett came in at low level, acquired his photographic evidence and egressed at great speed not to be seen again. I had a good long chat with @Kev67 at both our table and his and we covered many modelling topics from which I came away a little wiser. @perdu had his lovely Wessex there looking superb and it was nice to say hello after missing the previous few years. All in all a very enjoyable weekend. Gary

Now I know what standard I have to achieve with mine, very nicely done and the white air intake looks superb.

Think I will tag along for this, never seen a 30 coat brick before....😉