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Mike N

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About Mike N

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  1. Really coming to life now! That cheat line does sound hard work, though you've done a great job with it. If it wasn't for the fact the windows are part of that decal, I'd be tempted to paint it.
  2. What an incredible build, Matt. All that PE would have sent me blind and loopy long ago but you've achieved a stunning result with it all. Truly magnificent! Mike
  3. What a fantastic build, James! To my shame, this is the first time I've read through your thread (not my usual scale or subject matter, m'lud), but on seeing the finished article in the gallery I had to take a look! The cockpit and trolley are absolutely brilliant, a gold standard in weathering. Those seat belts are also incredible, so well worth the addition and effort. Well done!! Mike
  4. That's an interesting idea, and certainly worth a try with nothing to lose... Well OK, worst case is it doesn't shift the big piece but inadvertently drags other debris into view! Still, I'll give it a try and report back Mike
  5. Looking really good so far, Julian! On the back of this thread, I've ordered myself one Looking forward to seeing your build progress. Mike
  6. Congratulations on finishing what sounds a challenging kit - one I have in my stash. I've made a mental note to refer back to your build for guidance. Well done! Mike
  7. Thank you both The poor photography has its rewards in this case, hiding some of the blemishes, I'm not sure 'fun' is the word I'd use in this case, 'torture' perhaps is better Just looking at my stash spreadsheet, I have another five Mach 2 kits. I might reevaluate their retention after this, but then they are all 'the only game in town', which is how they hooked me in the first place... Mike
  8. Here's my effort, the Mach 2 Convair Sea Dart. A pretty terrible kit, it tested my abilities and patience many times, and I'm glad it's all over. Here's the build thread if you were still thinking of getting one.
  9. Perhaps against the odds, and with thanks to the generous extension of the GB deadline, I have finally finished the Sea Dart! Since the last episode, I've got the exhausts looking marginally better than in the base kit. I came to realise after looking at lots of photos of this area that the kit got it really quite wrong. Some of it I might have been able to improve earlier in the build - if I'd had the enthusiasm - but some is beyond my capabilities. The furthest I went was to sand the duct area into more of a round shape at the back: The metal tube exhausts are in and some filler applied to hide the gaps, but in reality there should be a sharp edge where they meet the outside contours. If I'd realised at the start, I would possibly have spent time filing out the inside, but not at this stage. The other thing about this work that has come back to bite me is that some plastic shavings and dust got into the cockpit, which I discovered to my 'delight' when I took the masking tape off. No amount of banging and shaking has managed to dislodge them. Oh well, no way I'm taking the canopy off now. For the final clear coat, I used Galleria Satin Varnish for the first time. At first I was applying it way too heavily, but I found the trick was to spray it so lightly that I couldn't even see it coming out, just the effect on the surface. It's perhaps a little too matt for my liking but I didn't bother trying to fix that. I'd had enough. Here's the end result: I won't be sad to see the back of that box... More photos will go in the gallery. In conclusion, definitely not a great kit nor my finest work. It'll be positioned somewhere near the back of the display cabinet, and if a new kit comes along, it'll be straight out and in the bin. Looking for a positive, if nothing else it has given me some experience in fixing surface imperfections... A big thank you to @81-er and @jackroadkill for hosting, and everyone for their comments and support! Mike
  10. Great work so far, Julian! I've been thinking of getting this kit, so am keenly following your experiences with it. Mike
  11. What a cracking result, Steve! It's turned out very well, much better than the bits in the box suggested it would, so well done! Mike
  12. I've only just seen the announcement of the GB deadline extension, and I can only say thank goodness! I had been hopeful of completing by the original date, but, yeah, this kit had other ideas. All was going quite well. There are a few non-blue areas, which are easily missed at a glance at B&W photos but are there on the fin and nose. The masking shows them up better than the black on the dark blue: After that it was on to my favourite part of most builds - adding the decals. Here is how they started, out of the box: After about 3 months taped to the window, the yellowing had gone - great right? It was only when I came to use them that I noticed a couple of things. The serial number should read 135763, but unfortunately only 5 digits were included! Secondly, the font of the 'NAVY' text was chunky and out of proportion. So, while I had already decided to bin the start and bars (cracked and out of register), I was now only wanting to use the 'YF2Y-1' text. I found and duly ordered suitable NAVY markings, and picked up some national insignia at the Brampton show. As for the serial, I used the smallest digits I could find in my decal bank: they're a little big, but still more like the proportions of the real aircraft. There are a few stencils on the aircraft - and none on the Mach 2 decal sheet. I could find a close up of only one, and as the text was tiny I didn't worry about recreating it exactly. I simply raided my spares box for some suitable stencils and added them in roughly the right places. Then the kit threw what I hope is its last curveball at me. The exhaust area is not very representative of the original. The kit has rings for each exhaust (simply sitting against the bluff back end!), but these are not like the real deal at all. The exhausts should blend into the boat tail area. I had expected to 'just' open up the flat faces and install some tube. Here's how it began: And after opening up: I'd not taken into account the flat web that intersected the middle of the area, so it was more difficult to remove that and clean up the edges. I had previously cut some long-ish lengths of tube but I decided to cut much shorter lengths instead. To these I added sheet plastic to prevent see-through. These will get trimmed, painted, installed and blended into the back. Like I said at the top, thank goodness for the deadline extension!! Thanks for looking. Mike
  13. That's looking really superb in the natural metal, and all the hard work preparing the surfaces has paid off. The finish line is in sight! Mike
  14. You're well on your way Steve, and you're 'brave' to go for the natural metal finish... It will look stunning once finished Mike
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