moaning dolphin

Looks to be a great project! I'll pull up a chair if you dont mind! Bob

Good day to you all on this gloriously sunny day (well hoping it is where you are, certainly 'tis 'ere!). Here is my latest completion, a 1:48 Lynx HMA 8 of 815 NAS embarked on HMS Zomeerzet. Not much extras added, just an Eduard fret for the seats and straps. That set really does make a difference and improves the kits versions no end. I didnt opt for the full internal (or external) set as it was really expensive and the only detail I thought I really wanted was the riveting on the posts behind the aircrew. Build was quite nice and easy, there have been alot of comments about fitment. It is very tight especially joining the fuselage but with a lot of checking and minute whittling I managed to get it all to fit really nice. Does take a bit of work but it is worth the extra. I added a few extra protrusions and it became really hard to handle without knocking something off so I mounted her on a slab of the finest walnut (Thats what it says on the tin of stain anyway!). To add extra interest I added a plastic card base to look like the deck of a ship. I wanted to go for the Somerset but having to drill out the deck lock grid put me right of so I based it on #4 spot on Illustrious. The markings and ring tie downs are not wholly accurate but it is just there for a touch of 'authenticity'. I armed her up with a drill Sea Skua and a depth charge, as I wasnt a 'Bombhead' I dont know if this depth charge is depicted as a drill or live round. I am hoping its a drill or it will make for an interesting flight . I also had a go at the intake guards, building them up, they looked ok but standing back now I think they are quite overstated. I dont really like them so I may get the intake fod covers out and just cover them up. I didnt want to do that in the first place because she is dressed ready for flight, tied down with 4 nylons, just waiting for her aircrew to finish off their slap up brekky in the ACRB. Trying to show some underside detail in this pic, forgot to take a picture before securing the aircraft to the base! Apologies for the poor photos, I use my phone camera and the lighting was a bit poor. Remarkably after over 40 (yes 40 ......cripes!) years of modelling, this is my first completed 1:48 Helo! Cheers now and stay safe! Bob

Well its been a couple of months since I last updated this wee beastie. I've just had to go through the thread to see where I left off! On this episode I will go through the basics of the underside as I was getting bored with soundproofing and sidewalls! Here we have the basic underside panel. Nice to see they have molded the flat central panels unlike all the 1:72 versions, and being an all in one is nice as well .... just hope it all fits together well! First thing to do was to fill in the gap from the load lifting assembly of the Crabbe version, this was just plastic card sections to make sure I didnt lose the geometry of the underside. Next was to identify which bumps and recesses are surplus to requirements. These would be hacked away or filled with plastic card. Finally mark out the missing details, a couple of aerials and some areas of mesh for vents. Bits at the forward end were chopped and filled Chopping off the bump right at the front left a hole in the surface so this was opened up with a drill to a uniform, regular size and I inserted a plastic disc. The rest was tidied up with filler and rubbed down. Moving back, I cut out the areas for the vent meshing. For flat areas like this I revert to my trusted cheap method. I picked up some mesh bags from my local "Dollarstore' (kind of like Trago!) in the wedding department. These are for gifting sugared almonds but the scale of the mesh is great. Looks good on 1:72, but even better on 1:48. With these vents the mesh is an external panel with a solid border so I can just glue the mesh straight onto the outer panel, trim and then fit it. It beats trying to thin down the thick fuselage plastic! Here holes have been cut out and meshing glued to very thin plastic card. I cut out the recess first and then when the mesh glue has dried I trim the panel to size. The tape just holds the mesh down until the super glue goes off. I make sure to try and keep the glue away from the edge so as not to fill in any of the holes. The outer panel is where the sonar well would fit on the RN version, for the CH149 this is where the aircon and heating pack is installed under the floor, hence the need for several vents! I then slathered the load lifting hole with filler to smooth that out and banished unwanted panel lines. You can see the middle panel has been fitted, this is a nice easy straight cut out. No probs at all. The outer panel encompasses both holes so there is a bit of internal radiusing on the cut out, which with paper thin plastic is a bit of a mare! First attempt failed, so I had to go round again! Mk 2, a little neater this time. After sucessfully trimming and fixing in place, all looks well! The inside of the vent will be boxed in with kit parts and I'll throw in some plastic card as well just to ensure it is a black void inside. I do need to do a couple of external scoops but these will be done later by vac forming them. Well thats all for the underside at the moment, hopefully wont be another 2 months for next update! Cheers now and stay safe! Bob

As always late to the party, just caught up. Glad to see you are giving this one the treatment. I have the Revell version (same kit) and I keep opening the box looking at the superb moldings and thinking of the exquisite final product ....... then putting it away again until I get build up the courage to do it! Keep on motoring through this bugger! Bob

Outstanding, a lovely rendition, well done! Bob

Brilliant stuff, these aircraft have always fascinated me and your work so far is excellent. Looking forward to some more on this build! I did always wonder what the turning circle of this monster would be on an attack run. Would they be as maneuverable as a regular large sized aircraft? Keep up the great work! Bob

Nice choice! I have the 'A' to build into a Canadian version. Will be following along intensely! its a difficult shape to emulate "accidently" Bob

Good day everyone once again and welcome along @Head in the clouds., its been a bit of time since I last updated. I have been chipping away at various bits and bobs on this which are time consuming but alas not very interesting if I post an update every day or so! Last update was quilting the port side internal structure. On a similar vein today I will go through the port side external structure. Again this is very different from the Mk3 version, top of the list is blanking off the personnel door and adjacent panel with a bubble window and 2nd window panel (1 in blue in pic below), adding in two recessed refueling points (2), Canada couldn't afford the little panels that cover these points so that complicates the issue a touch, and finally another blank panel requires replacing with a window panel (3). Also the red circled protuberabces need to be hacked off or filled. The main one up top and the bump on the nose will require reinforcing behind to allow the holes to be filled. So for starters ... Thankfully the Belcher conversion covers the window panels, the parts are very well detailed but there are, here and there, signs the molds are showing their age. This panel had a resin seepage into the refueling point. Not a big issue, just drill it out and fit a blank card in the bottom! Now removing all the blue areas leaves the fuselage very floppy and trying to then super glue the holes with resin I found quite problematic. May just be my sausage fingers and my trimming the kit to just accept the new parts, but it did take a battle of wills. After releasing my fingers from the fuselage superglue I ended up with this, shown already filled and dressed out. Looking ok so far, I will need to go over a few panel lines but we are now cooking on gas! So the reason for this was because some of the internals of this part are seen on the inside and I wanted to paint them both together. The inner part quilting was trimmed and primed, again I applied some preshade for the panel line areas and here we are before we splash the MSG! You can also see on the inner part I have installed the bag shelves in their extended position. This just needs a bit of bracing wire to complete the look. I haven't yet taken a pic of the internals painted up, that will come along very soon. In the meantime, stay safe all! Bob

Good afternoon all, Just wondering if any one can shed light on the catapults and in particular the cradle used for Royal Navy Kingfishers on the Armed Merchant Ships. Would they be of the same kind as for say a Walrus on a Cruiser or would they be like the American version? I have seen alot of US Kingfishers on catapult cradles but not of RN ones. I am not too bothered about the actual catapult but more specifically the cradle it sits in as its shot off into the abyss. Thanks very much all! Bob

Amazing work, that is one stunning model, well done!

Just gonna pull up a seat at the back, now nothing about the subjects but they look interesting projects and I looking forward to learning alot more about the aircraft and pilot.

Hi Bill, yes he is still going, in fact he has just redone his 1:48 Cormorant conversion. This is the set for the CH149 in 1:72 http://www.belcherbits.com/lines/decals/bd11.htm It is comprehensive and provides the paint scheme for the ramp floor (not even going to attempt to mask that!). I would recommend it but not sure how the price equates to UK pounds. The exchange rate might be favourable now? But he does provide prompt service to the UK. The only problem I found is sourcing kits to use up the remainder of the options Thanks for the complements on the KK, to be honest though I found it troublesome trying to fill such a large gap with the main windows. Got there in the end and after 5 years it is still holding up well. The smaller windows would be fine but the main cabin windows I found a right royal PITA! Cheers now Bob

Good day everyone, just a wee update on progress, a build like this tends to be slow with not much going on over the days but after a week or so there is usually something to report on! I have been looking at the Cabin internal side panels lately and these require a bit of modification as well. This is what we start with and the main corrections. The molded detail along the top looks like stowage pockets for equipment / nutty and mags for the troops. These aren’t present on the CH149 so it all comes off, same for the resin insert which has these molded on as well. Seems a shame to remove these but it is surplus. There is also a square raised area near the aft end, that needs to come off as well. I think this version has a crew seat sited here but for us we need what is basically a back pack stowage. Belcher provides the ‘seat’ part of this but I will need to build up some backs. There are 3 stowages here. Before I carry on with any major detail I need to chop off the end panel. In this version we have a blank panel and then a doorway, what we need is 2 window panels, again provided by the belcher Bits kit. The instructions provide accurate cut lines so its just a case of chopping of one end panel and then gluing in the resin double panel. Now I wished I had stopped there and took a picture but I got caught up on soundproofing. This soundproofing is by and large of the soft quilted kind (apart from a couple of panels which I will address in a mo). So what do we use for this quilted pattern? I initially tried tin foil being rubbed down over a mesh. This produced a nice effect but it wasn’t really well defined and I was worried I’d lose it under a coat of paint so there was only one thing for it, some wrapper from a fizzy wine bottle. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any spare so I offered to buy SWMBO a nice bottle of bubbly for Saturday night, which immediately raised suspicions and “what are you after?” Followed by disappointment after I explained! So she plumped for an expensive bottle and I had my quilt effect! Here is where we are at now then, I applied the quilted soundproofing, splitting the windows to get the foil to settle more into the window recesses. You can see one panel bare, this is a jettisonable window so is surrounded by a hard panel, the top and bottom are soft panels and you can see I have left my original foil panel in place, we shall see how that goes! The very forward panel is a bubble window and this should by rights be hard as well but I covered it by mistake and didn’t want to rip it up again incase I ruined it and had to buy another bottle of bubbly! I will add a little bit more detail to this later. Down the other end you can see I added 2 of the seat backs from plastic card. These 2 will be surrounded by quilted panels and then aft of that is solid skinning. Still more work to be done here before I get round to priming but I wanted to show that there was progress going on and to keep the thread current. I’m finding I’m doing lots of little ‘projects’. Make something, put it down, continue with something else, put that down, go back to other pieces, etc. The build progress is a bit of a mess really (like most of my builds lol) but I will try and keep this thread in a logical order ………. Still that’s all for now, thanks for tuning in and keep staying safe especially those without a covid jab yet ….. I’m 8 weeks and counting but we have so few cases in Atlantic Canada that the Province is kind of reopening any way, just have to keep our wits about us and not act too daft! Until next time, laters! Bob

Shocked to hear of your woes, glad to see you beat the grim reaper off, looking forward to seeing you step outside your comfort zone, I have to do the same every now and then just to come back and appreciate proper Naval Aviation! All the best and crack on! Bob

Nice choice, I lost my only completed 1:48 Hellcat earlier due to an unfortunate incident involving a 1:72 Mirage and a fit of madness because the undercarriage wouldn't fit! I like the look of the Eduard kits so will follow along for inspiration for my replacement Hellcat! Bob