moaning dolphin

Good day once again everyone! Hope you are all doing well. Had some great news as my daughter has made it home for Christmas at last! She was in Ontario where it is quite bad and entry to Nova Scotia is strict and it looked like if she did come home we would all have to isolate at home together so that meant 2 weeks working from home and having a 17 year old boy under curfew not a good prospect!, luckily we had a friend with a cottage spare so she can isolate in peace and our day goes along normally. So all is well and just another 13 days until she can end isolation! Meanwhile back at the ranch, I added a bit of random detail into the wheel wells. From the limited resources I managed to knock something up that looked quite reasonable. I mean you’re not going to see much anyway but what you can see has rudimentary detail! I also sprayed up the engine face with a mix of exhaust and ally to give a dull darkish look Then I went for it! Join this monster together. The plastic being used isn’t the greatest, its quite brittle and hard and takes quite a bit of glue to seal it down. This was not going to be a single take effort so started at the rear and glued down the area just aft of the main wing. I used Tamiya normal glue to get it stuck together and where the join was a bit ropey I filled it with extra thin and worked it closed. Took a bit of time but at least I got it down securely. I then taped in the kit nose piece and glued down the front third. I used the kit nose as the kit just didnt want to line up very well and it gave it a bit more solidity, so hopefully that will work out when I come to install the resin nose. I did however forget to put the gun muzzle in, I was going to replace it anyway and insert some appropriately sized tubing and the plan was to build something inside to make inserting it easy and give it a solid foundation ...... but forgot! so will have to just make it up at the end lol! I then glued the wings down, again using thick glue to initialize the contact and then flooding the joins with extra thin. Once I was happy it was all lined up I then just put it aside, left it and walked away! During that time I did manag to sort out my festive lights! That is my dog just SITTING there, shes not doing anything else lol. And then dug out my trusty paint mule as I wanted to see what paints I had that I could make use of. I sprayed one half in white primer, the other grey and used the grey and dark (although doesn’t look too dark!!) from my Mig set and found a darker blue from my Vallejo air collection and this is the result. Im not bothered about the surface finish on this as I just want see the shades, I’ll be taking a lot longer in the surface prep of the plane, but I think they look ok. I think the grey may be too light, almost white so I may look at a slightly darker shade. But I think I’ll be good for the Kazakh version, I'm going to look to see if I can do the Ukraine version to keep options open (no!..... not the pixel one! Even though I may have the right colours!) Then finally it was time to remove the elastic band and tape and see what I had going on. Not too bad considering. These were the two worse areas. Nothing that a shed load of 200 grit wet and dry wont sort out! The nose was the worse of the two areas. This needed an emergency in work shave just by the dog leg in the join and because the plastic was hard and brittle it doesn’t look pretty but we can buff that out. Well it looks like my next couple of days will mainly be consisting of sanding and filling and repeating so it may be a couple of days before I get round to another update, so until then stay safe Y’all! Bob

hi Mario, Having spent a couple of months on the Lusty back in 2000, the Quarterdeck is indeed a wooden floored area. Not sure of the smoking use though ( I was clean living and didn't frequent such a place!), I know the smoking areas for the Non Commissioned ranks were the boat bays along the side, I think the Officers may have used the quarter deck? I cant provide too much detail on the ship I'm afraid as I was part of the Air Arm and didn't really take too much notice into the ship details! Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing this progress more. Bob

Excellent work so far, I'm just a slight bit ahead of your build and it does continue to build up nicely but just keep an eye out on that front fuselage bit. It does fit nicely but mine must have dried a tiny bit skewiffed, I dont think it will make much difference further down the build but I know it is there! Just be aware that there is a bit of wiggle room there, if you know what i mean! Keep up the great work! Bob

Welcome along! the more the merrier! and you can talk amongst yourselves when I hit the dull bits! Well good news is I reckon I have the paints to do the Ukrainian version, however despite a thorough search, what I don't posses is the patience and dexterity to accurately chop up masking tape to make it look good, so it'll be straight or curvy, deffo not pixeled! But way before we even think about paint work, I need to button up the fuselage. I had chopped down the cockpit tubs casting blocks (both needed cutting off) and securely glued them into place. Now being a clumsy sausage fingered type of fellow, I needed to protect them as I don't think they would have survived. I started off by just laying over the canopy As you can see these have a horrid seam line runnning through but that isnt an issue. I will removed that and polish it out later, so to secure the canopy and also protect that from my sausageness I secured it in. Right job done, I can safely do some serious damage to the fuselage without wrecking the canopy or cockpit, but before everything goes together I wanted to look at the main wheel wells. These are relatively visible once assembled but will be a bugger to work and paint once put together, so we will work them first. One of the foibles of the academy kit is they have a 'shelf' in the wheel well where there shouldn't be one You can also see I have assembled the intakes as well, but we will ignore that bit for now, Ill come back to them later! I needed them in place so I could mark the cut out and then set to it with scalpel and wet n dry So that was done, next was to remove the detail from the roof of the wheel well and replace with etch and wire The layout of the wire is just random and just for interest I can now paint the inside and then I will assemble the fuselage together, reading the reviews that looks like its going to be another laugh! On the underside there is more raised detail to remove, again I will replace this with wire as opposed to etch, still more removal to be done! Once I have done that the intakes can just slip in there nicely with no probs at all* * Who am I kidding lol, they look like a right dogs breakfast! But thats for a later day so for now take care, stay safe and I'll report back soon! Cheers now Bob

Oh lordy! what with those stencils and trying to mask off the pixels, I think that would drive me loopy lol! I've seen some masks for the scheme but I'll just opt for traditional straight/curvy lines 😁 So on from yesterday I completed the cockpits with the etch and resin, they have turned out really nice. I was hoping I would get away without removing the casting blocks underneath. The front one is fine, but the back one needs quite a bit removed and as its all built up this will need to be done carefully, maybe tomorrow when I have a steady hand! A bit fuzzy but you get the idea. Next up I looked at the cockpit area on the airframe, this just needs a couple bits of resin and etch to complete and was given a coat of RLM 65 same as the tubs. Its not very clear but there is some framing there on the fuselage side. Eduard have had another timeshift with these pieces as they are 2 out! So I’m thinking I have some random extras inserted somewhere! I also added etch to the back of the cockpit and the sills, again giving these a coat of paint. I have some coaming to fit in there but I can do that later, so there is no hurry for that yet. Also looks like i need to re-secure a corner on that back piece! Which then leads me onto the next stage Looks like I am done with the internals already! This is moving along a lot quicker than I thought! Just have to slap the intake faces in and then job done, I’m finished! So looking ahead I need to check out the wheel wells, there is some etch available for the pipework but I may do my own with wire to give it a rounded effect rather than the flat appearance. The other area I need to look at is the intake, most pictures have FOD guards fitted, which is good aircraft husbandry but lousy for us model makers lol. I gather there are a few ramps and accesses in there so will need to do some digging with that. But thats all for now I'm afraid folks. Take care and stay safe! Bob

Good day everyone once again, following on from yesterday I thought I would run through the colour options for this kit... The first is the M1 variant of the Kazakh Air Force, possibly flown by Borats Brother? I do like the boldness of the colours and decals in this, very Eastern European! Next up is the Russian Navy Air Force (not sure if the Russian Navy has an air force or not? or whether it would have an air arm, I know as a ex British Navy Fleet Air Arm member I would scoff at any connection to the Air Force 😆) as well as the Eritrean version. And finally we have the Ukrainian version I like the boldness of the Kazakh one, the green of the Eritrean and the Blue Grey of the Ukraine. I'm not sure if the Russian one is doing it for me, just seems a little insipid, so one down three to go. The jury is still out. I have bought a Mig Ammo Su-33 Russian set way back when: https://www.migjimenez.com/en/acrylic-colors/602-su-33-colors.html but I dont know if I can make any of these colours work, a little more research is due I reckon! So back to what I did last night, I finished off the rear cockpit, now the instructions have you paint the side console panels black which I diligently masked off and sprayed Looks pretty good and neat, then did some research and discovered that all the insert panels on the side consoles were the same colour as the rest of the cockpit! So out with the blue and lightly misted over the top which in hindsight gave a nice shade to the whole area. I picked out the raised buttons in black, added a dusting of dirt and installed the instrument panel and Control column, et voila! I have since installed the rear bulkhead now I just need to find somewhere safe to store it so I dont trash it up! Well thats it for now, hopefully I can keep the interest going on this, just finish off the front cockpit and then 'Bang' nearly done lol! But just before I go I have a correction to add I stated that the Brassin set was part of the original kit, however that is not the case. It was included in the package from our kindly BMer but this was an extra, so before you go off and buy this kit off an expensive auction site just beware it doesnt include the wheels! 😁 Cheers now and stay safe Bob

Good day one and all, Hope we are all doing well, surviving and building? Now my wee kid is grown up enough to have his own wheels I'm not out every night ferrying him to his soccer practice or his social gatherings (max 5 only though!). That has left me with a nice load of free time to smash through my stash and I am now getting to those kits that keep coming out, getting a once over and then put away for another 6 months. This is one such kit, a kind offer from a fellow Canadian BMer which couldn't be turned down. However I am not a Russian aircraft aficionado, my previous includes a Trumpeter 48th Mig 19 and a Accurate 1:48 Sturmovic, oh and the old Hasegawa Mig 23 in 72nd, so this will be a journey of discovery. Now on with this kit, which is full of goodies as standard, there is etch, resin cockpits, resin wheels and a comprehensive decal sheet. As it was a nice bargain I didnt feel guilty getting more extras myself, so got a resin exhaust, a new nose (a bit of Rhinoplasty!) and a metal pitot probe. So here is what we have to start with ... The obligatory box shot The plastic contents It doesnt look massively stocked with plastic, I'm sure the extras will make up for that. The fuselage halves here show its not really a tiddler either! Thats a 6" rule in there so a good footlong A very good decal selection as well and enough stencils to drive me up the wall! Heres the extras! The Brassin set comes with the kit and the exhausts, nose and probe were extra. And the etch, nice and comprehensive. Although in looking at it I have discovered that the Eduard instructions are actually 1 out for some etch parts, ie calls for part 70 on the etch but it should be 69! So that’s something I will have to keep an eye on, just hope they dont throw in some Algebraic coefficient functions later to work out what goes where, I think I can handle a single digit time shift! The cockpit set is, to me, truly exquisite. It does astound me how they can get so much detail into the resin. The seats are masterful and even come with detailed helmets. Just hope I can do it all justice with a lick of paint. Also here is the nosewheel mudguard (I’m assuming it’s a mud/fod guard as that’s what it looks like!) Here we have the cockpit itself. The only kit parts I add is the control column in the background there. I think the kit in general builds up pretty well from the basic plastic, this originates from the Academy kit which seems to have favourable reviews and I wouldn’t have thought Eduard would choose a lemon to base their kit off. I have cracked on with the cockpit already, priming the resin set and giving it a coat of blue. Every picture I have seen of the SU27 cockpit is a different shade of blue, some toned down greyish, others are bright blue. Here I have gone for artistic license and chose Vallejo Air RLM 65, which when sprayed on a grey primer comes out slightly dull and I think it looks pretty reasonable. I do note that these aircraft don’t have that gory turquoise colour though which is a shame as I have loads left over from my MIG build. Now as of yet I don’t know which version to make, I will cover the options a bit later as I forgot to take a picture of them so will discuss it then. I had already made a start on this before I decided to WIP it on here so I am a bit behind the curve (also typing this up during my lunch hour at work …. Hour? Who am I kidding, my lunch interlude!). So begins a journey into the abyss of Modern Russian jets, I hope it doesn’t get complicated! Thats all for now, keep staying safe what with one thing or another! Bob

Wow, that is stunning! Bob

Lovely rendition!

Good day! I have the baby brother in the stash and this looks like a nice little 'nudger' to get it going. I'll be at the back looking on! Bob

Great stuff, the kit looks wonderful and the diorama setup looks just right, very well done. I've always fancied doing an Atlantic, it'll sit nicely next to my Nimrod and CP140 .... when I get round to building them of course! Bob

Just received my MR Procon Boy, Inverness to Nova Scotia in a little over 8 days. Excellent service and competitive prices. Bob

Thanks for that, very much appreciated. It does help, unfortunately only in saving me 20 bucks 😄 its about 10mm too wide, so back to the drawing board. Many thanks once again! Bob

Greetings knowledge hub! I have a bizarre request. I've got a 1:35 Super Frelon and the instrument panel is horribly bare. I have seen a 1:35 Eduard etch fret for a Chinook and i think i could make use if the parts of that fret but i dont want to invest $20 and find out its too small or too big. So if you have the kit could you measure the height and width if the face of the instrument panel please. If you have the actual etch parts the size of the panel on there would be more than helpful. Many thanks in advance! Bob

excellent rendition Tony, love how she is poised, ready for action. I had the CA kit but could never muster courage to build it and sold it a few years ago looking at doing something with the Smer kit. Luckily Airfix brought out theirs and thats in the stash waiting now! Or they guy that forgets to strap in and has to hang on, showing how powerful those cats were! Bob

Good day to you all from glorious Nova Scotia! Hope you are all doing well. This is my latest release, built as part of the Corsair GB which finished last month. Although I did manage to get it up in the gallery, it wasn't 100% finished so here she is in her (technically!!) finished glory. This is the Tamiya 1:32 Birdcage kit, done up as a Fleet Air Arm Corsair Mk I JT190 of 1837 NAS, based on the Eastern board of the US. This particular aircraft belonged to Squadron CO and Fighter Ace Lt Cdr Jackie Sewell DSC RNVR. Ultimately the aircraft claimed his life during a training flight when he collided with his Senior Pilot S Lt David Watson RNVR in JT198 over Yarmouth, Maine. Both pilots lost their lives and they both now lie at rest at the Military Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The kit was built more or less from the box, I added some fabric harnesses as they looked better than Tamiyas steel versions which aren't very flexible. I also added some cockpit stencils to add a bit of realism and interest to the standard cockpit. Points to note on the aircraft. JT190 didn't have clipped wings as it was a US based training aircraft, it also retained US harnesses and didn't have the rear view windows common in most Birdcage Corsairs. The aircraft is displayed having been pushed back for maintenance hence the tail wheel is meant to be reversed! The engine is a thing of beauty and really should be displayed so left the cowlings removeable. I added some ignition harnesses to the engine from wire. The insignia markings are painted, which was a great journey of discovery! The Royal Navy JT190 was from Xtradecal and I used the kit stencils. The internal paints were Mig Ammo, external were Vallejo for the sky, Model Master Gunship Grey from the EDSG and my own mix of Olive and Green for the Slate Grey. I used very fine thread for the aerials (if you can see them!). I think the weathering is slightly heavy but I am claiming artistic license for that! I also took liberties with the flaps which by rights should be stowed and the cowling flaps are closed where they should be open but the detail looked too complex and time consuming for this build! All that is remaining is the tape for the gun ports and also on the nose cowling there should be some sealing tape but I couldn't decipher the exact layout so left this out This kit was a truly wonderful build, the parts just fell together and the joins were nice and tight. In fact id anything didn't fit right it was down to me not fixing it in properly! If you want to follow along the build the link is below. Now the pics! JT190 in glorious technicolour (with a backward tailwheel!) And finally the Lt Cdr Jackie Sewell who inspired this build, RIP. Bob

Thanks for that, I started to run out of time and really wanted to get it in the gallery so I had to leave a couple of things off but at least I 'Technically' finished 😁 Bob

Good day everyone! This is my effort, Its the Tamiya 1:32 Birdcage version dressed up as a Fleet Air Arm MkI Corsair, JT190 of 1837 NAS, based at the US Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine. The aircraft belonged to FAA Ace Lt Cdr Jackie Sewell, it also claimed his life on 4th October 1943 during a training exercise of Yarmouth, Maine. The kit is 99.9% complete but I was running out of time and rather than rush it I decided I would still post it as complete even though I want to do a bit more weathering and add a couple of extras like aerial wire but dont want to ruin it unnecessarily. Markings are painted by my own fair hands with kit stencils. I will post completed completed pictures in the RFI gallery when done and link it through the build thread. Thanks to all those that chipped in to help out and to our steadfast moderators for running a fine GB And the build link Cheers all! Bob

I did ponder on it and i think a second one would be folded but i think those Wolfpack conversions are expensive and rare aren't they? (Edit, or am i thinking Danger Hobby? Danger Boy? ) I thought on the Hobbyboss kit but i think the Accurate Miniatures kits are so much better. If i can get z set i would go folded. Youve produce a fine example yourself.

I do like the P3 so Im in! I work with the CP140 and we also have Norwegian P3s in plant as well, we currently have 299 sitting in the hangar now and pretty sure 206 has been through us. I started a CP140 a few years ago and had the intention of scratch building all the details, I spent a good few weeks on it with much cutting and no gluing at all! I really do need to dig out the thread and re ignite it soon! Anyway looking forward to seeing your efforts, from what I've seen it builds into a pretty decent model. Bob

Lovely job, currently reading his book and its nice to relate your Seafire to it, I had only read about his spotting duties the other week, we are now into the Far East, quite a riveting read! BZ!

Very nicely done!

Lovely little build and an interesting history of the type, thanks and job done! Bob

Good Morning All! I seem to be having a good output lately and this was one of my latest, built as part of the 'In the Navy' group build elsewhere in BM. As that GB is now well and truly over (thanks mods!) I thought I would share my efforts here as well for those that don't frequent the GB section so much. This is my Grumman Avenger MKII, JZ525 of 849 NAS onboard HMS Illustrious as part of the British Pacific Fleet. Kit is the 1:48 Italeri version, which is a repop of the Accurate Miniatures kit. I used an Eduard internal etch, mainly for the seat harnesses and instrument panel. I totally remodelled the centre cockpit based on all available information and a bit of good old imagination. The decals are from an old Aeromaster decal set, they weren't in a very good condition but I managed to adapt and overcome with a bit of imaginative repairing. The internal paints were from the Mig Ammo range and externals were from the ModelMaster Acryl range. Not sure about the weapon load or Yagi aerials being correct but hey ho I chucked them in any way. I deliberately left her unweathered as I didn't want to screw up the paint work 😁 I had been eyeing this up in my stash for what seemed like ages, must be over 15 years now. It felt good to finally get it done! Onto the phots! Internal detail is quite hard to see so here are a few in progress shots And if you want to follow the trials and tribulations here is the build thread. Cheers now Bob

Lovelly subject, always fancied building one up as a FAA subject from when I first saw the AM kit. Looking forward to seeing how it goes together! Bob