rob Lyttle

I'm still picking away at this old dear when the mood is right. All 4 wheels are on, and the steering looks OK 👍. 4 mudguards on as well with the assistance of some brass wire replacement legs. And the front frame with headlamps is completed. I have only one lens and it's pretty foggy. It came out alright and I've tried polishing it a bit on the inside face but it's not great. And it's only one. I noticed that the car is sometimes represented with canvas covers over the lamps, presumably for daytime periods of the Mille Miglia race. I think this will be the way to go. I had a missing lens on my first SSKL and fitted a canvas cover, so if this lens does clean up I'll look into the possibility of fitting it on that one. The mudguards need painting, I figured it was better to get the assembly done first and brush on the Humbrol gloss enamel. They were originally painted black and I've done a trial on one with the Humbrol. Front spotlight fitted as well, attached to a wire crossmember and with the tube item underneath (for a starting handle I'm guessing?) So some major snags are sorted but the problem now looming is the half-missing windscreen item. I have half the frame and one screen transparency. Otherwise the building is about done and it's time to get some gloss on the white

For example... THIS ⚠️⬇️ I'm pretty happy with this. Just one of the many posts that would have been accompanied by a chorus of "You're KIDDING me....😲⁉️"

I for one, and probably most other BMers here, are astonished that this one sailed across the finishing line in such style, never mind nitpicking tiny details of scale accuracy!! Super project and an outstanding result 🤩

Ah, OK 👍 I was going to cram them all into the one with updates as they're in one WIP, but this will be a better solution, thanks 🤩

I've got bits of builds going left right and centre here and the finishing line is in view. 🫢 Well, I'm calling these 3 done. McRae's Focus WRC has just finished a challenging stage and needs a good wash down, the Escort has lenses and sidelights front and back (which should've gone in before the bodyshell went onto the chassis-- I had enough to think about at that stage without worrying about sidelights...!) Wipers done and the 2 tiny door handles fitted. That Escort kit, I can see that Airfix were raising their game at this time (1968), with all the engine details included and those tiny handles work nicely straight off the sprue. Wheel inserts look good too. My kit was rather compromised and needed some rescue procedures. Focus is very much a more modern click-together kit, but benefited from a bit of scratch improvement. And the dear old Model T Ford was a pleasure to work on of course. OK, done and dusted and an entertaining civil project, good value at >£15 for the whole lot 🤩. I'll update the gallery entry to include all three now. What a gallery though, isn't it ⁉️😍 A real pleasure to look through and not a gun, bomb or missile in sight 😀 Cheers 🍻

Red white and blue Demarcation worked out well. Looking very tidy all over. I was never sure about that barnacle on the roof... I remember seeing pictures with and without. Maybe some kind of radio telemetry thing for testing 🤔? Trouble is the decal pretty much commits it

Finally got round to fitting a frame to the edges of the base for this'un. Tidies up the cut materials. A few items added to the model- some aerials and some salvaged decal details around the roof rescue section. First effort at applying wipers to the windscreen isn't going too well. I got a couple of drive points in OK but as usual it's the blades that catch me out. I'll have another go

@Enzo the Magnificent,that's a YES from me👍 Biennial sounds ideal

Admiral, I've got the Finecast MG K3 in 1.24 and I reckon they would suit the TC for size and style. But I gotta tell you the process has put my build on hold. Arthritis aside, you also need to be in a particular mind state. There's a metal rim, a hub, a little jig and wire, and some instructions. I managed one that was just about good enough to act as the spare wheel. One thing I noticed though, because of the slots around the rim the wheel looks a bit castleated when done. I experimented with making a wire hoop to go on the rim edge to cover the slots effect.... and went onto other more enjoyable modelling activities 😎 This link should take you to my wheel efforts, give some idea of the look of this type...

23rd now, @Enzo the Magnificent. Any news ⁉️😎 It's not that we're PANICKING or anything....🤭

Yeah Marklo, I hope so too. Dennis kindly handed this one over to me as I was doing one the same and we were exchanging ideas, info and sharing resin engines. I've pretty much finished my own Lodestar and continue his in fits and starts. My conclusion is that the rounding of the underside is a great improvement. We only really spotted the issue as I was completing my fuselage. The Ventura shape is a lot more boxy from the aimer's flat window right back around the bay doors. Dennis's fuselage captures the Lodestar's shape much better. Time for another look in the box 🤔 Ah, here we are, Dmc's fuselage so far... Adapting to another modellers style and methods has challenges, he was a great one for vacform solutions, but I got somewhere near what we were aiming for 😎

Progress with this one too. White primer and top coat applied and the airframe is coming together in appearance. Props and spinners got some too. But I wanted to explain what I'm doing with the main wheels as they are getting done. This is a made over bogey that will slide into the metal tube strut that's incorporated into the u/c leg. Best way is to show the various ali tube lengths I'm using and label them. I use the imperial sizes of Albion Alloys stuff, metric is just as good but you can't mix them. Look at that, like a PowerPoint presentation, isn't it 😎?! I've drilled and reamed the wheel centres so there's pretty much just the tyres left so that a short length of D fits in tidy. The rims are smoothed back with a larger drill bit just twizzled by hand. Front centre here... A collar of C fits in part way and protrudes inboard to represent the brake, as in the assembly front right. Here we go... There's the brake labelled C. Now, the axle made of A tube has been drilled to take some 0.6mm wire right through which will fit up into the leg on the plane. Then a collar of B glues on. Then that B piece fits into the C in the hub and Boom 💥 there's the wheel on 🤩 Once that one in the picture goes on, I have a complete bogey, in metal, ready for the load. The kit plastic parts look feeble in comparison, I don't think they could take the weight of this plane with all the ballast and the aggregate weight of the thick plastic. I should put it on the scales to get a figure for the records. The nose wheel, on the other hand, has an easy job and the challenge is to get any weight at all bearing on the nose leg. Overall picture of the white... Time for a tidy up... The fin modification is done but I'm not over the moon with it. Looking a bit hand-built, but it's on

Fear not for the Twin Otter, it's just resting while I deal with all this other Peaceful stuff. 🤩 The plane is to all intents done and I'm fiddling on occasion with some people on the jetty. Couple more exhaust pipes to fit and I'd like to get a pair of windscreen wipers on. Aerials and that sort of thing. Did I mention I'd made some steps on the drop-down door?. Jetty's is a bit too high for stepping onto the float so I ll have to do some woodwork alterations for easier passenger access. But all under control and just some finishing touches to do. 👍

Lovely result 👏 I've done a few Heller cars but not this one, and I know they can be a bit trying at times. But you've sorted this out to a great finish ✅️

The Gallery, so far, is SUPERB...!! An absolute joy to look through, enjoy and admire 😍 And so varied and diverse. Brilliant works. I'm just gonna stay here, you can't make me leave. Seriously though, I'm going to float the idea that this category be revisited, and on a regular basis. Perhaps annually would be asking too much of such a hectic schedule, although I for one wouldn't object. But just take a look through the gallery, (and there's plenty more in the pipeline,) to see the enthusiasm and appetite for Peaceful modelling ☮️ It has been said that We shall inherit the Earth...😇 That's a bit aspirational at the moment but a regular slot squeezed in between the tiger tanks, stukas and other implements of death and destruction would be a most welcome addition to the forum. And many thanks to the mods for keeping the idea on track with effective gate-keeping. Your hard work is now paying off in the contents of that super gallery 👏

A great rendition of a great Canadian workhorse, fitted with floats for it's natural environment. Lovely!! Very tidy work ✅️

A few items are being dealt with. Firstly, I noticed that the wingtip nav lights are wrong for my build. The kit has big triangular transparencies, ...whereas I need to come up with something along these lines... The transparent parts will get blended and smoothed to disappear and I'm sure I can find some little pip to represent those. The front leg has been worked on with a little strip of skinny plastic over the outside face and the ends drilled for a wire axle. The drilling for a wire got a bit sketchy but overall it's done and glued with CA. As you know, the nose wheel doesn't take much weight, the challenge is to get ANY weight on it! It's the main gears that take load which is a good reason to upgrade with some metal. And that variation on the tailfin fillet, I decided at this late stage to have a go at representing it-- I may yet regret it 🤩 So far,the back edge is attached to the fin base and the bottom edge is glued to the top of the fuselage. When those 2 joints are set, I'll pull the skinny styrene in against the top of the fillet and.... make something up from there 😎 Central fillet still isn't thin enough for my liking but I think I'll go along with it. An alternative would be to cut the whole triangular fillet off and make one out of something like 0.5mm sheet. Maybe next time...😅

The wing structure is done, flap attached again, and finally now assembled onto the fuselage. Yayyy...! But first I put a couple of my thin lead strips on the ceiling of the cockpit area. There is an inner lining there in the plane so it looks fine and it adds a bit extra ballast in my favour for keeping the tail end up. She can keep her nose down with confidence now... Valom were obviously not confident about moulding surface detail on the bottom of the fuselage, I'm guessing it's a matter of getting the moulding out of the tooling at the manufacturing point. Instead they supply a bunch of photoetch panels to be added and a diagram. I can feel my mojo nodding off at the mention of it 🙄 I've done some, ...and I may get a few more on. But we're on a dash to the painting stage now. There's the undercarriage to sort out but other than that the building is pretty much done and dusted.👍

Oh here we are....this is a good view of the flywheel type item that sits behind the propeller, And just the 2 exhaust pipes, one for each bank of 3 cylinders. I've fixed the metal tube legs in properly, complete with the "trousers" and in fact I needed to bend the legs back a little to get everything to sit right. It DEFINITELY helps the situation 🙂👍

OK, I may be getting somewhere... She'll rock back when tilted backwards but sitting level the nose stays down. Both cowlings are on and I do have one more prop and spinner to add, nose wheel and the pilot's door. I've knocked a flap off, that'll add a little bit behind but it's not far aft of the balance point so hopefully not much. I've lost a flap inner hinge in the process 🫣 Hi @Colin W... I considered scratch building the entire elevator piece for lightness but decided to press on. Maybe I should have. Hollowing sounds good but riddled with high risk! I had pretty close to zero space under the floor of mine but maybe I would have squeezed something in. I wanted to test this before permanently adding the wing, because I'm currently looking at the roof area in the cockpit. My Airfix Islander had the same issue, and I just about got her to stand but very light on the nose wheel. I opted for a more definite solution in the end with a couple of figures mounted on a clear piece with wheel chocks and the front wheel attached. I noticed one detail that I acted on. Just behind the prop and spinner is what looks like a flywheel, with gear teeth around, probably for the starter...? You can see it here, through the window, I'm not going overboard with it but the kit plastic and my metal tube arrangements are a bit spindly in comparison so I made a 1mm thick disc collar that sits behind the prop, and looks a bit more like it... Ah, here's a better photo of the set up,

I'm trying to ascertain if I have enough ballast up front to get her to stand tail up. That's before I glue the wing on. I'm not balanced yet, not since I attached the elevator on the tail end. One cowling is now packed with a coil of 3mm solder wire and plasticene loaded in around the metal bearing tube. Other one to follow, and I'm upgrading the main gear to ali tube too. This requires two grooves in the plastic leg parts to accommodate the tube right through and into the nacelle and wing. Wingtips are on, and I'm currently using the bare ali tube legs pushed into place for balancing investigation. 2 packed cowlings may help but that solid elevator is a lot further back than the cowlings are forward. Let's see what I get...

The process of attaching the flaps is in full swing, concentrating on the nacelle pivoting area and assisted by a post of stretched sprue that has been let into the lower wing panel and the back edge of the nacelle main piece. The arrows indicate the 2 attachment points for the flap hinges, one right inboard against the fuselage side and the other outboard of the bulge items.... don't ask, I have no idea , I should have asked, shouldn't I?🫢 The instructions however, have it wrong. This is an upside down drawing and we're talking about parts 34... One is arrowed onto the aileron and the other is heading for some kind of mid-point, and both are drawn facing the wrong way. Here's what I've done on the 1st side... And here's the inboard one over by the fuselage side... Looks like I just missed including the outer hinge in that photo . I'm finding that quite a lot, some detail I want to see is just out of view in all the pictures 😖 The kit includes 2 sets of wingtips, the standard and the bigger triangular fuel tank type and I haven't got a single picture that shows definitely which ones I need here. Searching online images persuades me that it's the smaller, standard type but it'd be nice to have even one pic of my own 🫢 Well, the main task is to make sure the 2nd flap sets firmly and in alignment with the 1st one. Definitely easier with no fuselage in between them yet. And then get the last 2 hinges in place.

Sorry B, I missed your question from way back...😴 A vintage classic relaunch would be great, along with their Short Skyvan, both far better products than the ancient Hudson which is coming this year. I don't know of any other kits in 1.72, certainly nothing commonly in circulation. They'd rather be doing spitfires and stukas

This is shaping up so well 👏 Very tidy work! There's something quite remarkable about Matchbox transfers, they seem to be time-proof and indestructible. Good fortune for mounting her onto the floats, it can get a bit emotional....☘️

After some pondering of the parts, I finally decided to pile into the plastic and release the flaps for some deployment. Like I said previously the kit plastic is thick but I'm finding it good to work with. The interesting thing about these flaps is that the end of the nacelle is separate from the rest and is attached to the underside of the flap panel. I think the operating mechanism is inside the nacelle and the whole thing is operating from there. The required cut line is engraved on the nacelle and I've penned it for better visibility. So it's out with the razor saw....