AlexN

Superb piece of craftsmanship, Giorgo. Fantastic :). Cheers, Alex.

Lovely bird sieves there, Johnny. And thank for the clip on the flying models . That first landing of the W10 was perfect! In an interesting coincidence, I happen to have two of those Laser 300V twin glow engines myself, bought direct from the manufacturer, Neil Tidey in the UK :). They were intended to go in a large Catalina one day, but one of them will go in my (partially built) P-40 E in RAAF colours way before then. Time is the big problem there... Keep up the great work, you're nearly there by the looks! Presumably the undercarriage gets a bit of wiring up, too? Cheers, Alex.

I'm glad that you've filled in those trenches in the Land Rover front end - they were making my eyes water! Sorry to hear about the CA tribulations - glue can run out at the most inconvenient of moments. Especially when the bottle of thin CA falls over (as they always do, curse the manufacturers) and the stuff leaks out, fills up the cap, and sets... Half your luck being able to caress such an important part of aviation history . Nice white topknots on the figures, too. Cheers, Alex.

Hell Ray, The QANTAS one looks lovely! The RAAF one looks intersting too! I'm glad that I'm not the one making his mind up - but on balance I would possibly tip in favour of the QANTAS version if it were me. Or, as Jaime said - do both, and you can never have too many of 'em... no pressure or nuffin', though . Cheers, Alex.

Thank you everybody - I'm well chuffed that you are all interested :). I trundled down to the lockup this morning, and of course the tea-chest that the Alouette was in was right at the bottom of the stack, against the wall at the back, in the (left hand) corner. Where else would it be? I have decided to simply post runner snaps today, and leave the type information for the next post, probably tomorrow. Note my @Nigel Heath (and also Hyperscale) blue-card impersonation/shameless copying - and my even more shameless attention-seeking device back there <--. Not really cricket, is it? 1. I keep mentioning the lockup on BM - here it is. The tea-chest sized boxes contain most of my model kit collection: aircraft at the back (10 boxes); AFVs, trucks and so forth on the right. There are several tea-chests'-worth at home, too. the mailing tubes on the left hand side contain plans for various large-ish scale radio control scale aircraft - most of them by Brian Taylor, and a number from John Ranson (of the RCScaleBuilder forums and Radio Control Scale International magazine fame). The Ranson plans are large-scale electric-powered: 100"+ wingspans... Boxes in the lockup by Alex1N, on Flickr 2. Alouette kit box in the lockup, after digging it up from the last box that it was possible for it to have been in. Seen here sitting on an AFV tea-chest for convenience whilst having its portrait taken. I know that I have already posted Scalemates' version: but this is mine own, so there Alouette kit box in the lockup by Alex1N, on Flickr 3. Alouette kit box side information panel. The camera was doing its usual thing of focussing where it wanted to, not where I did Alouette kit box side information panel by Alex1N, on Flickr 4. Not one but two fuselage parts frames. For some reason Revell included two seemingly identical frames in the box: one was inside the taped-up plastic bag, the other was 'loose' (actually packed in rather tightly!) in the end-opening box. As far as I could tell on a cursory inspection, they are the same... Two fuselage parts frames by Alex1N, on Flickr 5. Alouette cockpit and engine parts frames. Note the loose piece in these parts snaps Alouette engine and cockpit parts by Alex1N, on Flickr 6. Alouette clear parts frame still in its heat-sealed bag, markings sheet and Nord 5210 SS-11 parts frame. The armaments frame won't be used in this build as I am de-militarising this kit. The 'floating' part turned out to be no. 104 and comes from this frame. It is part of the cockpit controls for the (anti-tank) missile system Alouette clear parts and Nord 5210 SS-11 parts frames by Alex1N, on Flickr 7. Steel rule and Canon lens cap give the scale to the fuselage parts. Clean, crisp and delicate moulding with relatively little flash. Dark green is my least favourite colour polystyrene to work with, but beggars can't be choosers Steel rule and Canon lens cap give the scale to the fuselage parts by Alex1N, on Flickr 8. Closer-up snap of the rear fuselage pieces. Note the moulding process flow-mark in the cabin base part, bottom centre Closer-up snap of the rear fuselage pieces by Alex1N, on Flickr 9. Not an Alouette - a geo-survey helicopter hovering above our house. Snapped while it was doing a survey for forthcoming hazard reduction burns (I think). The crew seemed to be watching me watching them watching me watching them (to paraphrase the Rogue Traders), as it hovered overhead long enough for me to get this snap with reasonable sharpness - given that the lens was wound out to 600 mm (35 mm equivalent). This might be a very heavily modified EC-145 - or a Bell of some description. I have been meaning to put this snap up on Flickr and BM for some time, and this post gives me a convenient opportunity to do so, even though it isn't a float-plane of any sort or description Not an Alouette - a geo-survey helicopter hovering above our house by Alex1N, on Flickr I seem to have got a bit rusty transferring info from Flickr: lots of pasting mistakes and so forth. Still, I've got here in the end. As I said up top, type information in the next post, since it is getting late. I trust that getting the parts out of the box doesn't exceed the 25 % pre-GB building limit . I'll have another look at the very clear instruction booklet (photos of bits of which, anon) in bed. Cheers, Alex. <-- not an Alouette either

Well done, Pat! It looks excellent! Cheers, Alex. loves it too

I agree with the Tentacular One and others about the superb figure painting, and I second his base-removal proposal! He's right, you know . Martians like to remove their tentacles from their baseboards, too...

Super! Very interesting choice. Interesting sleek hull shape contrasted by up-out-of-the-way-of-the-waves (like most flying boats) engine pod. This will make up for the Pelican (another seabird ) 9 hiatus, by the looks, given the amount of delcared (and no doubt unpremeditated) alterations and so forth. Well done on your documentation coup, I'm envious (as usual). It's a nice touch that the German crew was saved from the briney. Following with great interest :). Cheers, Alex.

You can't have too many S6Bs either! Looking forward to this, Ced .

Thank you very much for the warm welcome, Jaime . The next step is to actually find the thing, and make some preliminary measurements of and calculations for the floats with respect to the rest of the aircraft. Cheers, Alex.

You can never have too many Spitfires . Good luck, Alex.

Nice!

Great subject, Joe! I use Safari on the ipad too - there are, as far as I know, no extension for Safari on iOS, which a pretty tightly walled garden; the same would therefore apply to Firefox and Chrome on iOS. It would be different on macOs, wirh the plugins being available to Firefox and Chrome users, but highly unlikely that a Safari extension would get past the gatekeepers at Apple (who would be wanting to keep 'on-side' with the PhotoBlaggard lawyers, accountants and spin-doctors). I won't be holding my breath on the likelihood of the plugins lasting: I'm sure that the above-mentioned creatures will put the bite on their pet programmers to get the block back in place. In the meantime, though... . Back to the Seiran!

Thank you very much for your warm welcome, Jaime . My new thread is up now. I am looking forward to this one - and to seeing what everyone else comes up with! Cheers, Alex.

Hello all, I am intending to build the Revell 04478-0389 1/32 kit of the venerable Sud-Aviation SE 3130 Alouette II, but on floats, in civillian livery and markings. The aircraft chosen will be Zulu Kilo Hotel November Whisky (KZ-HNW) registered to Helicopters NZ (HNZ) and has an all-orange airframe with white cabin roof and yellow tail skid. The floats appear in the photo that I have to be white or a very light grey, with dark grey strips. Kit box via Scalemates: The photo of the aircaft can be seen here (via the HelicoptersNZ in the 1970s page from 'Top Birds & Everyfing' on Typepad): Photo copyright Top Birds & Everyfing on Typepad This photo also suggests the basis for a very simple but highly-contrasting diorama. The kit has a relatively large number of parts, (at least compared with the as-yet uncompleted and possibly ill-fated Accursèd Seafire 1/72 kit by Pavla that nearly drove me around the twist in very short order: I have a house brick on standby for that one), even without the bits for the Nord 5210 SS-11 missile system. This kit has been impinging on me off and on for some time now, and this Group Build is the perfect opportunity to do something with it . I have very clear memories from when I were quite small of seeing pictures of Alouette-like helicopters with floats on buzzing about, so I went looking on ye internet, and sure enough, quite a few turned up. The one that leapt out at me was the very attractive (well, to me at any rate) orange, white and yellow HNZ machine. I have read through the instructions (I keep all the kit instructions separate from the kits in my collection - coz I'm weird) and will trundle down to the lockup and attempt to retrieve the kit from the slightly-ordered mound of removalist's boxes that the stored part of my collection lives in, in the next day or so. The floats will be made from fine-celled blue Styrofoam building insulation, which I acquired a few sheets of a while ago for making parts for my flying radio-controlled scale models (last used for cowling scoops for my 1:5 Chippie cowling plug). I still have a lot left. If all goes according to plan I might even be able to float it in the bathtub. So, that's the plan. I also have a Plan B, which involves the Airfix 1/72 Crab Sea King HAR3 helicopter - which needs no introduction to anyone. Another brightly-coloured aircraft, all-yellow this time of course. I'll post again with some snaps once I've dug out the kit. Cheers, Alex. <-- likes the look of the nice grass in that photo above. Being in New Zealand, a sheep probably wouldn't be out of place on the mooted diorama...

Hello Jaime & Co., I'd like to officially1 put my hand up for this! I have an aircaft picked out an' all: the Revell 1/32 Alouette II - but on floats. There are quite a few Alouette IIs/Lamas on floats out there, and I have chosen a civilian version: an orange, yellow and white outfit from HNZ. It may or may not be in a diorama per the photo that I found on the internet - the diorama will be time-dependent. I also have a backup - the Airfix 1/72 Crab Sea King HAR3. Since the Revell kit is the militarised version with Nord SS-11 missile gantries and concomittant cockpit sytems, I will need to check what bits and pieces to leave off. And floats, of course, will have to be scratched, but since they are essentially cylinders with hemispheres on each end, I am not anticpating too many problems making them (attaching them may be another bucket o' snakes, however). The kit's relatively high parts-count should keep me from getting bored, and since it's 1/32, I won't need to use a microscope quite so much. Cheers, Alex. <-- not a float 1 I have already discussed this with Jaime and Mr Tiger via PMs

Bellissimo!

Pity there's no 'choking-to-death-laughing' emoticon, so (the old) rofl will have to do...

Thank you for that ...good news for everone using Firefox (and Chrome?) - until BotoPhucket work out how to block them. I detect an arms race developing . That Wessex that @John_W posted looks very woebegone and down in the dumps . A.

Ye gods and little fishes! A twin-engined Me 163 with a snout-put-on-a-diet! Or through a mangle. Looking good there Pat - the instructions that I have for the (untouched) resin kits wot I got (MDC, Fisher Models, Planet Models) are definitely bulkier than yours! Good luck with the u/c legs - and the clock! Cheers, Alex. says good luck, too

Nice work as usual. Happily munching away here Cheers, Alex. <-- sharing my , must get in another truckload

A textbook case of parasite drag! The more that your O/400 progresses Johnny, the further various biplanes in my collection slip down my build order . Fantastic work!

Have a lovely weekend

Grumble. I've dealt with it. By deleting it. Grrr. I had the picure (dead Sheep) set so that only I could see it on my timeline, but that resulted in the above. So I reset the permissions to normal and it can be seen on my timeline - but Flickr still seems ter fink dat it's hidden. It looked fine when I posted it from the imac, but I saw that the usual 'can't find image' sign on the ipad. I mght have to have a look at the origianl,URL, which may well have changed since I switched the permissions (back). Computers. Bah humbug. Sorry about the waste of thread real estate and bandwidth. Only just back and I'm apologising already . Grrrr. Bloodhound leash looking good, snuffle sniff.