Rob G

Update. A week on, and what a week it's been. Night shifts (away from home), busy days, and a 30-years-after-we-finished-OMG-we've-got-old high school reunion (I thoroughly recommend them BTW, they are entertaining and quite revealing, especially if like me, you were one of the unseen, colourless non-entities), which slowed down (but didn't end) when they closed the venue around us at 230am... Enough excuses man. I have managed a few little bits here and there as time allowed, but today has been the most productive. Starboard side is decalled and drying, port side will be done tomorrow AM (life allowing). I have to work out a way to remove Xtracrylix clear gloss from the canopy (because I was too lazy to mask it...), as it's made the thing a bit misty. Apart from that, all is slowly slotting into place. Should be done by... never mind, don't want to put the kibosh on it, do we? I've also managed some work on the F-107... hopefully, the decks will be clear by the end of the week, and I can move on to other GBs.

If Graham the laconic Aussie came to the RN already qualified as a pilot, there's every chance he learned his trade mustering cattle in the bush. Those guys are crazy, with a capital K. They used to use Bell 47s, now they use Robbo 22s and 44s, and they get into all the small spaces to flush the roughies out. Here's some video. And as a note, that bull at the start of the video weighs about twice what the little Robbo does...

Here's this, tendered for everyone's bemusement. It's got words and pitchers and stuff, too. A lot easier than me writing it out. http://www.helis.com/howflies/ontheair.php

General suh, The 'handbrakes' are called the 'collective', and their task is to vary the pitch on the rotor blades, collectively. Hence the name. Pull the lever up, pitch increases and your wee little whirly goes up (assuming that lift exceeds mass), let the lever down, your whirly goes down (every time). For an interesting lesson in flying old helicopters, I refer you to the book 'Chickenhawk', by Robert Mason, in which he details the trials of learning to fly old US Army types. Quite the best bit of the book, IMO.

RMS Titanic HMS Victory Cutty Sark And I'm Australian, by way of English birth. Thing is, a lot of the answers to this quiz will depend not so much on your nationality, as on your interests. Personally, I'm not that much into ships, and I have little time for US warships, of any age. One of my local club members, however, might have trouble stopping at 3, and all 20 he rattled off would be US. Another deciding factor may be what's in your mind at the moment - I've been reading about the First Fleet recently, and so HMS Sirius, HMS Supply and Lady Penrhyn could also have made the list - the first 2 as the fleet's principal vessels (both carried Phillip's flag at various times) and the last because she was such a dog; so slow that the whole fleet quite often had to shorten sail so as not to lose touch with her. And I have an interest in Arctic/Antarctic exploration... does the name HMCS Karluk ring a bell with anyone? If not, look her up - terribly sad and noble story.

Darn, I was expecting trumpets, saxaphones and drums, all played to an off-beat. Ripped off again. Not my thing, but nice work!

I'd also be very happy with an accurate, new tool 1/72th version, as 72 is my preferred helo scale.. I'm down to just the 1 old Revell one now, having sold the other 3 I had (yeah, yeah, I know...).

Is nice. Always good to see those old Matchbox kits built up using modern techniques.

Hmm. Mine are all older (none younger than 5 years or so, plus whatever time the retailer had it sitting on his shelf), so this is possibly in my future. Is it possibly a result of 'safer' solvents being used in the formulation?

Hmm. I haven't found that at all - since my recent reintroduction to the Fine and Noble Arte of fettling ye Olde Plastic bits, I've been digging into my paint stash a bit, and so far, all seems well. A number of years ago, when I was going to start modelling again (didn't happen, but never mind) I went through all my paints - many Humbrol tins and Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo glass bottles, and a few Xtracylix plastic bottles bought from Hannants Colindale in 2007, and had a pogrom. Anything that had been opened previously was reopened, and either thrown straight out if gummy, or stirred up to check to see if it was still usable - if usable, I cleaned up all the sealing surfaces and resealed the tin or bottle, then back into the drawer it went. So far, everything I've reopened has been usable. The stored away Humbrol Metalcote tinlets however, have leaked a bit, despite being unopened and in their original box (when the LHS closed, they gave me a pile of stuff to pass on to the local club guys, as wanted). Paint skins when there's sufficient free space above the top surface for the solvent to come out of solution and hang in the air as it were, and I wouldn't think that a Humbrol tinlet would have a big enough free volume to allow enough solvent to do that. It may be that there's a tiny air leak in the lid, that is allowing the solvent to continue its journey out into the atmoshpere, thus causing the paint to skin. I'm probably preaching to the choir, but if you're not already, give the tin edge and the lid a good clean off before you reseal them - that may help. The other thing is to make sure you're not deforming the lid when you remove it - little lifts from a few points around the edge are much better than one big 'pop' from a single point. Apart from that, I'm out of ideas.

Yes. (Happy now?) Although whether it will even be started for the GB is another matter - I want to do it as 'realistically' as possible, which is involving me in searching out some deep, dark, esoteric, airyplaney information that I'm trying to wrap my old grey matter around. Thank you for that Mr C. I will peruse it and learn much. (Edit: I saw and commented on that build - thank you for reminding me of it.)

I'm a bit younger, I was looking for the AAs...

As I'm contemplating doing really, really bad things to a Sword Lightning T.5 for this build, I'd appreciate some thoughts from anyone who cares to comment about the 'best' (easiest, safest, most accurate, whatever) way to add a plug to a fuselage. I'm thinking that I want about an inch, to represent a 6' extension. I do have some ideas, but more are welcome.

Only if it's more than 25% done.

Ah, storm repairs. We know all about them here, and it's cyclone season again... When you get the chance, do restart this, I'd love to see it finished. Mine is almost at decalling stage.

Update, for anyone who cares. In between unscheduled life stuff, I've managed to spend a bit of time on the Lightning. As mentioned in the previous post, I decided to install some tube to make muzzles for the guns... what would have been a relatively simple operation on a kit still in pieces became a study in miniature engineering that frankly, I'm not in a hurry to repeat, even though it was rewarding to solve the problems. The gun barrels are 2 halves of a Revell Contacta cement needle; slightly overscale, but meh. As can be seen, I cut the muzzles to an angle as per the real thing, although I'm not sure why I bothered, it's invisibly small. Oh well, all good practice. Yes, that's a sharpening stone - invaluable for making controllable adjustments on small metal things. The fuselage holes were opened up with drills, then small reamers; there wasn't enough room to do it as well as I would have liked, so next time I'll do it first!. The spring steel wire running through the fuselage was an early tool, worked out after I managed to drop the first bit of tube into the fuselage, which resulted in the need to drill a hole in the rear bulkhead to get it back out. The wire serves 2 purposes - firstly (and most importantly), it stopped the tiny bit of steel tube from disappearing inside the beast, as it runs the full length of the fuselage (plus quite a bit), and secondly, it allowed me to provide pressure to locate the tube while the superglue set. To assist in the location of the tube, 4 layers of Tamiya tape was applied and burnished into the gun recess; not enough, but all I had room for. Here's the first tube installed, and the tape for the second still in place. The guns are somewhat wall-eyed, the paint is still daggy and I should've replaced the panel lines with fine wire, but it's going to have to stay the way it is, as I have neither time, patience nor incentive to do it all again. Since photographing this bit, I have stripped the wheel wells of paint (4+ layers made them look a bit tatty) and repainted them. By the time you read this, the natural metal bits will be on, and I can start with the Future before decals (that sounds familiar... did they reset the Matrix??) Rob.

Here ya go cobber. http://www.firestormmodels.com/store/home.php Search for 'Centurion' and 'Aust Vietnam' - that should sort you out. And if you browse around, you may find more.

According to Hasegawa, who cares? They look wrong. According to Airfix, who do the same airframe in 48th, it's Humbrol 164 Dark Sea Grey uppers and fuse sides, 165 Medium Sea Grey fuse lowers and 167 Barley Grey underwings and tailplanes. I'm doing my Hasegawa 72nd F.6 in this scheme, and not only does it look good, it's been a fairly trouble-free build, with very little call for filler.

Thanks for that Cliff.. it's an old Eduard kit (1995), with all of the ... umm... interesting engineering that Eduard displayed around that time. That said, the Camel is also an Eduard kit. Shoot me, shoot me now.

I'm waiting for the Big H to deliver some bits'n'pieces. Then I will have to decide if I'm making a 72th Strutter, or 48th Camel or Hannover Cl.III in Latvian markings. The Camel was my first Latvian choice for the GB, but I've had the Hannover for years with the intention of doing in Latvian colours, and seeing as it was a ground attack aircraft, and I'm doing a Super Tucano as well (Mauritanian, but that's not important right now), I thought that maybe the contrast between 1917 and 2015 might be interesting...

Trevor, I was thinking the same thing... possibly in the same livery as some of the small Australian feeder airlines that flew Twin Otters and the like. Coincidentally, I have several decal sets for some of those. Hmmm....

When you finally finish it, for heaven's sake don't let any dust fall on it, or you may be fixing more cracks.

Odd indeed Nimrod, but these things happen - I've done a bit of industrial painting and sometimes even 2 pack epoxy paint won't stick to some areas. Oh well. In other news, I've decided to add the cannon muzzles to the belly tank; the next time I decide to modify an almost completed kit, will one of you gentle folk please wallop me around the back of the skull with something large and wooden, because stupid. There will be photos and descriptions and stuffs in due course.

I'll assume you don't mean 7 of 9. However, back on topic, I too await the rigging on your wee clipper.

Update: Sunday morning. Removed the masking first up, and that same darn patch of paint under the wing peeled off again. This despite alcohol rubs and a good wash. <sigh> Never mind, the good old hairy stick has sorted it well enough. A bit of quick masking for the natural metal now, and we'll be getting close to Future and decals!