TheBaron

Having just re-read Mark Curtis': it remains astonishing how much of the UK's foreign policy is ommitted or erased from the domestic scene, ironically almost as if it were another world.... Ian Newton's: by contrast lets your mind soar around the world on words. How could you resist a book that contains: 'At high southern latitudes, the Southern Ocean extends continuously around the earth, uninterrupted by continents. This allows some seabird species to circle the earth in their non-breeding periods, assisted by strong eastward-blowing winds.' What things those birds must see, living in the wind.

After taking the aged mater out for morning coffee and a bun earlier a mystery item arrived in the post producing instant brainlock/wtf moment as the neurons tried and failed to connect the item to something that I might have rashly done online late at night with a 'buy' button.... Myself and an old pal in Belfast have been independently rigging our living rooms for vinyl (after more than three decades of having albums sitting packed away in boxes) and in the process unearthing the sometimes dubious musical tastes of our younger selves, though I cannot fault him here in matters of taste and generosity. I hadn't noticed until now that the order of tracks on side one rather vividly demonstrates a set of consequences, viz.: 'Love at First Feel'/'Big Balls'/'Rocker'/'Problem Child'..... Post of a different natures first however: Kind of you Simon - I mentally force myself these days to spend more time looking at reference photos than the actual model whilst treating it at this stage, as I know from past experience how easy it is to get lost down that dreaded Rabbit Hole of Grime! My thanks for those generous words Bill. Those fin lights look so dark anyway in an unlit condition that at this scale some transparent medium and a bit of Payne's Grey will do the job. I'm glad to see that my late night Belgian white chocolate biscuit regime is appreciated Johnny. I must suck my gut in when taking pics next time though in order to avoid it protruding into the frame... I value your opinion on such matters Ian so pleased those details pass muster; that hand painting really isn't too hard to do if your wrist is braced, so if you know anyone with a really tiny shop who needs their sign painted.... Joking aside, there's a number of Japanese modellers who regularly post their miniature/diorama work on Twitter and it's of such grace and quality that I've not seen anything even approaching that quality elsewhere. Thanks on all counts Pete you kind man. James, how could I fail to recollect that you would have told me this already! (In defence m'lud I would ask the jury to recall that this build has gone on so long now that the National Trust have begun to show interest....) Glad you enjoyed it G, and your own paintworking has been no small inspiration in pushing me into new areas of the craft! From someone with your brush skills Chris that's much appreciated indeed. I genuinely don't have words to express my gratitude for such generous remarks Alan and Steve. Nor do I have to tell you how much they mean coming from friends with your abilities. Thanks sincerely both of you. That goes for you too Roger! To matters Vixonian then, and I've been champing at the bit for some time to start sticking the brass PE onto the bird. That time really has come round now that we're at the point that I don't need to handle the aircraft for any length of time and risk kerboinging of all the tiny bits off into the void. Or rather, nearly that time, until I recollected that I'd forgotten to install the front windscreen fairing, which on an early production SV such as XJ481, is a much smaller than the later and more substantial rain shedding/demisting carapace. This version is quite frankly like trying to stick a toenail clipping to a curvature in spacetime. This section was vacformed as part of an early canopy design that I rejected, but which I kept a couple of transparencies from in order to cut off and use the fairing part of for this build. Eventually I GG'd it into place and was happy: Do to the decreasing size of this fairing as it wraps around the front of the windshield and continues back around the stbd side, vacforming wasn't able to capture all of that detail, so the last 25% of that run was formed by building up a rough profile with resin and laser and then carving it to shape with a small craft knife blade. After Micromesh and paint I think that's about as plausible as can be produced for such a fine feature at this scale: (Note to self, repair that damaged decal in front of the obs window...) In no particular order then, here are the remaining brass and resin bits jabbed on, starting with the arrestor gear: I wasn't sure originally that the details on the hook and haft would be worth printing at 1/72 but rather glad that I did as such details would be a glaring omission: Brass bracing for the inner pylons went on quite handily in the end: The stbd one working with data relay and pylon on that side in a rather satisfactory manner when it catches the light: The venturi added below the nose roundel as well: You can see also in the above shot the blade antennae also added to the top of the port boom, partnering one of a similar nature under the nose: This latter one I'd originally painted black (presumably thinking in my addled mind to match the colour of the airframe) but both are white in all period photos of the aircraft in trials livery. Also to note is that this latter antennae isn't vertical but has a slight yet noticeable 'lean' to stbd when viewed from the front) Final items were the pitots: - and fences: -on both sides: All the exterior brass fitted quit neatly and without too much fuss so I'm glad I spent so much time earlier in the build testing and finalizing all those designs- nothing worse than getting to the final hurdle of a build only to find frustration. So this is how she sits this afternoon: I've still to add PETG glasswork to both the nose of the aircraft and Terry's Martel Fetish, plus glazing the observer's window and door with Krystal Klear, but other than a few minor touchups, we're almost there. I did if you recall have a PE part for the central windscreen divider but with it being both miniscule at this scale as well black against black invisible to the unaided eye - and two sets having pinged-off into the void - I think I can live without it. A final brass matter to report is that I knocked up the rest of the stand in the garden shed from the arm of an old chair: I've no idea why but I was messing about with a cylindrical 'stone' in the Dremel on slow and ended up patterning all that brass pipework with it: I can't adequately explain this except to say that I might have been unduly influenced by a Dunhill lighter at some point in the 80s without realizing it. There's no accounting for folk &etc. If I can get the beast tidied and propped up on the stand it might be time for an RFI next weekend. Take care until next time all of you. Tony

Top hump surgery Dr. Giorgio.

That is, without doubt, completely unique. Wonderful!

Agreed: it looks very Martian indeed.

Splendid work - as always - Jerzy. Lovey to see.

Your work looks incredibly striking in that photo CC. Bravo!

Is that glove and glasses your new visual signature Steve, like that chap's calling card in the old Milk Tray chocolate ads? 'All because the lady loves chipped Spits...'

That metalwork shine is absolutely exquisite Ian - may I ask what kind of chrome pen you used dear heart?

Anyone else finding that weeks these days consist of a Monday and a Friday and a bit you that can't quite recollect in between? A bit like living in a J.G.Ballard short story only he hasn't written the ending yet... Ta v. much as always Pete. OOoops! - didn't realize that my Rod Hull & Emu tattoo was showing!! Apologies everyone. Thanks G: I've really been enjoying the use of tempera of late, so my thanks to you for making me realize it could be used in modelmaking! Thanks Chris. Can you imagine the look on the face of the first guy reporting for duty in the hangar and being told that he had to put them markings on the actual aircraft! I do all my own stunts you know Keith, including dropping the aircraft whilst painting it earlier and doing a swift boundary catch... Thank'e gaffer. I'll have that Martel glasswork on directly! Thanks, and lovely to hear from you Rob. Hope all well with yourself in your Malvernian dreaming. I'm afraid not Johnny - I don't think resin printing is there yet to produce big curved canopies like this, plus the matter of where the supports would go without marring the optics. I think Alan recently did a really nice small windscreen for his Wapiti bit is was iirc a simple planar shape. The canopies here were vacformed from 0.5mm PETG over cold cast bucks. You say the kindest things Roger. Thank you as always. Thanks Ian. It's that bittersweet part of a build at the moment where you can see the finish line in sight but are trying not to rush things and make a last minute hames of it. Frankly James - and strictly between ourselves - I don't think that enough is made of the similarities between the New Romantics and the Fleet Air Arm. Not many people realize that the original title of that Visage song was in fact: 'Fade to Extra Dark Sea Grey'. Thanks as always Simon. It looked like a rugby pitch but was a Gaelic football ('GAA') match - similar set of posts but a different set of rules altogether! Cheers Benedikt. Cc you old dog, you say the sweetest things. Bless you. I'm not sure The Madge would take to having a republican on the premises. Probably get the footmen to hide the silver plate.... Any free time this week has gone into shading/staining and marking out the main panels on the underside, those time consuming jobs that don't look like a whole lot has been done becuase you spend a lot of the time staring at the aircraft and going 'too much?'....'too little?' Topsides are now done as regards surface markings I think. Any more and things will start to look overdone: As it is the camera adds more contrast than the naked eye sees in these 'dark on white' shots, but I'm too lazy I'm afraid to shoot in RAW and adjust to match. I revised that RAT door and surrounding structural lines after realizing that I originally had them all too far back. I also added a hint of Payne's Grey staining with oils along the stbd wingfold fairing and boom where it runs along the wing. I'm still not happy with the shading work along the data relay and tail transceiver for the Martel though: I'd bought some Nulm oil when last in Dublin to experiment with here but really wish I hadn't bothered - it's crude and clumsy stuff compared to the subtleties of oil paint in my biased opinion and needs removing here due to it having far too extreme an effect on these regions. I'll do that tomorrow. Undersides too now need to call a halt on surface markings to avoid exaggeration: From the visual evidence I have (interpreting between shots of XJ481 and XJ476 in use, not museum) these trials aircraft looked to be kept in a cleaner condition around the nethers than those of front line carrier squadrons - I guess due to a slower operational tempo and not boinging on and off carrier decks - so the aesthetic I've tried for here is flaps and major panel lines visible, plus some light lubricant/fuel staining in typical locations: As they didn't show up as decals against the black, I hand painted the yellow warning markings along the canopy sill in tempera: - and again using a very pale grey for the maintenance markings on the black pylons: As text of this size isn't legible at 1/72 anyway I found it easier in the end to just paint such details in than faff with custom decals as I'd originally done. Final tasks of the day earlier were prepping the tail/formation lights on the port fin ( I don't tbh know what if any colours these were but in photos they just look like dark glass with no tinting visible): Followed by adding silver inlays to the twin nosewheel lights: Both those sets of lights will get blobs of Dekoru glass drops to form the bulbs/lenses next time. I think that the small teardrop light immediately in front of those two nosegear lights above is a red one - none of the colour photos I have of '481 with that earlier nosegear door are detailed enough or taken from the correct angle to let me be sure, so I've painted it a dark red here so that: a) it looks like a red light in unilluminated condition and: b)if it's not red and someone more knowledgeable corrects me then I can deny it was ever really red at all... Hope your weekends are going well, and be safe all of you. Tony

Oh I say... These shots really bring home the quality of your work on bringing this to life Ian.

That's interesting Mike and good to know. I've used a standard resin/IPA process for the last couple of years and occasionally find the fumes an issue, mainly in winter when keeping the studio heated to printing temps. May I ask if you have you tried the plant based stuff below the 0.05 level? Best, Tony

Can confirm that Alclad's black primer/microfiller clings happily to Elgoo's standard grey resin.

<Nods in vigorous agreement> Beautiful. Besides, we all knew the earlier one was just a prototype.... After that last incident at customs nobody is surprised Daddy M.....

Your Anson's pure class in that yellow now Chris - absolutely immaculate brushwork all round. As others have said, the crazing a minor setback to a craftsman like yourself.