Terry1954

We are here at last, and what a fantastic journey, ending up with a truly splendid model. Can't tell you how much I have enjoyed watching the WIP and admiring your tremendous range of skills. Well done Tony and thank you! Terry PS. Looking forward to watching XN708 come together!

I'm not sure how I missed this thread Matt, but I just had a really good catch up. Notwithstanding the fine start on the 767's, my beady eyes were drawn to the top log book entries from September 03 and July 04, in the Vampire T11. Not well known in BA livery of course! I started to contemplate the BA types I have been carried around the world in as a passenger, and your mention of the performance of the 757, made me realise I don't recall ever travelling in one, BA or otherwise. That take off performance sounds awesome and I'd love to experience something like that, although I can't complain as I did get one flight in Concorde from London to New York sometime after the tragic Paris crash, but before it was withdrawn in 2003. BA were doing free upgrades for business class travellers outbound, so I got lucky. I do recall the take off performance in that being quite spectacular, and I reckon we were only a third full with passengers! BA were having trouble filling the seats post that awful crash. Will stick with this thread and see these lovely two beauties evolve. Terry

FINALLY! Well worth the wait Tony, the nose looks exquisite. My fixation with Martels is a complex, psychological one going back to my younger days . I'm sure Freud could explain it, but I can't The Vixen is simply stunning, as we all knew would be the case. Terry

Very true Keith, very true! Thanks Adrian. There will no doubt be more canopy wrestling when I come to first mould, then fit the vacform canopy on the Grob Viking! Thanks John! Wow, a whole 20 days elapsed since I posted any progress, so I'll attempt to fix that this afternoon. It's been a busy few weeks down here in Dorset, with a few more garden projects getting sorted, and then some more pleasurable stuff involving this little beauty: I get to go flying now and then with my old school chum Malcolm. We fly out of Bournemouth Airport where he has a share in this Robin and although its close to 40 years old, it is a delight to fly. We managed a very enjoyable hour over many Dorset beauty spots including Poole Harbour, Swanage (including my house), Weymouth bay, Portland, Abbotsbury, Dorchester and Tarrant Rushton. Weather was superb and also got to take a reasonably close look at a couple of cruise liners, still "resting" in Weymouth bay. I think Dujin do a 1/72 version of this, so might have a go at building one sometime.......... Yesterday was also a beautiful day and Mrs T and I headed up to Wimborne (by road sadly) for a pleasant lunch and walk about. Couldn't resist this colourful shot which reflected the day perfectly. That's Mrs T not posing on the left! So onto the Astir. After several coats of white microfiller primer and some rubbing back, several top coats of white were applied. For this I used Tamiya (acrylic) gloss white, heavily thinned with Mr Levelling thinner. I let that dry off for a few days and then started to mask for the red trim. On the nose, I needed the trim to have a small white gap between it and the canopy, so I used very narrow tape to get that line "parallel" with the curved canopy bottom front. Then I applied wider pieces of masking tape to seal off that part completely, then did similar to the wing tips and tail areas. Although I was planning to use a fine spray airbrush, being red on white I wanted no scope for stray overspray, so then set about masking off the whole of the rest of the airframe. Call me paranoid! Then it was time for the red trim itself. This time I used one of my new Tamiya Lacquer reds (Bright Red), also thinned with Mr Levelling thinner. I continue to be amazed by Mr Levelling thinner being able to be used to thin both water based paints and lacquer based paints. One of those wonder products available to us in this amazing hobby. Here you see the Astir after several lightly dusted coats of the red, which went on superbly. The two other "aircraft" you see are the 1/72 Firebee drones also occupying production space. They had just recently had some top surface white, ready for their own masking processes. I just noticed in that last picture, my evening refreshment sitting next to my reading glasses. I wonder Tony @TheBaron, perhaps that is my "signature" calling card, similar to Steve @Fritag's sinister glove and glasses? I'll leave the Astir for a bit before checking if any further red is needed prior to lifting the masking tape for the great reveal. Apart from a number of 1/72 gliders, a 1/72 QF-86 has also recently joined the production line on the bench. You have probably already spotted the drone theme, which I'm hoping to be ready for Telford. The scheme I am planning is along the lines of this one, taken from Duncan Curtis's @Sabrejet's excellent publication on QF-86 drones. It's a great publication Duncan, and I plan to model a few more QF-86's! Apart from the drone collection building up, we also hope the QF-86 will be joining these soon: More soon. Terry

Lovely picture there Steve, taking off towards the west judging by the general angle I reckon? Spent a few holidays walking along Saunton Sands watching Hawks and before that Hunters departing Chivenor many moons ago. Terry

Absolutely awesome paintwork on that Anson Chris. I mostly airbrush these days and could never achieve that level of quality finish with a paintbrush. Amazing! The RWD-5 looks nice but im very distracted by the 1/72 Skyraider. I have that one in the stash and im looking forward to seeing your build evolve. Will you be doing an FAA Suez bird or some other? Terry

You see, having not yet tried this chipping malarky, I still wonder in disbelief at the number of coats and differing types of paints that are used in the process. So you started with good old (to some questionable) Alclad primer, to which Alclad aluminium is then applied, followed by said chipping fluid itself, then we have various light coats of Tamiya acrylics, only to be lightly overcoated with Colourcoats (enamel I think?). All these different mediums all living happily together ........... usually on other people models! Admiration, mixed with bafflement (probably not a real word), that this process actually works. And towards the end, my understanding is that water is to be used to activate the deeply (by now) applied chipping fluid itself, by wearing away the top layers. It's all looking so very good so far, I'm hoping this will give me courage to try this myself! Terry

Awesome looking Tomcat coming together there Bill. I just so love that aircraft! Terry

Two awesome looking Vampires Tony. They both look superb. It seems like you can bring these 1/72 aircraft to life! Terry

Speak for yourself Ian! I have a certificate confirming I'm now completely sane again and should once more be allowed to build models as long as I don't swear loudly in the process or feed the carpet monster with anything other than small digestible bits of plastic. So there! Terry

Color Alan? What, you mean paint? On a Giorgio build and we are not at the paint stage yet? What has the world come to?

Looking rather good there Matt! Terry

I think I managed to find that stuff thanks Steve: https://www.premiumhobbies.co.uk/scribers/hiq-parts-scribing-guide-tape-bundle-3mm-amp-6mm Have ordered a pack of course! Terry

So when you discover the actual point of when to stop fiddling, will you let us all know! Terry

Two rather special Mosquito's there Tony. I really like the pair of them. I'm not a WWII modeller generally, bar a good few Spitfires and one or two other types, but this new Mosquito from Airfix could seriously tempt me big time. Already fancying a TT35! You see @Martian I'm not just tempted by drones! So maybe I'll blame you when Mrs T wonders why I now need Mosquito's! Terry