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rob Lyttle

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  1. rob Lyttle
    First of mine over the line and into the gallery. It's the Frog/Hasegawa MD RF-101C Voodoo recce jet. I've always loved the 101 series and built a few, but this kit ended up loitering....until NOW! Then I found out about Operation Sun Run, the USAF go at claiming some Speed Records. Namely LA to New York, and also the return bothways Record ,landing where the take-off was. 6 RF-101C took part along with a fleet of their new KC135 Boeing tankers and this was a serious workout for in-flight refuelling and planning. Apparently the tanker rendezvous took place at Mach0.9. Each Voodoo had a distinct colour scheme to aid identification. I've done airframe #3, which was actually one of the back-up planes. She filled up and turned for home after the first 2 successfully did the first refuelling rendezvous. The decoration is a mix of spares and self-print. It appears to me that Frog or probably Hasegawa have marked the wing tops to represent extending slats. To be honest I didn't clock it until it was too late-- they're etched out rather than raised. Nevertheless, a very enjoyable build, and I'm thinking I'd like to do another, #4 with Yellow marking looks good to me 😎 Here she is...
  2. rob Lyttle
    Well I finally got round to editing, printing and sealing a bunch of decals, including those required for the Voodoo. And things are shaping up quite well. With the decor done there are a couple of camera ports to glaze and that's basically it. Except for one thing. Looking through references it looks like I have the wrong airframe number! For the no3 aircraft I should have 60165 🙉 60166 was the no4 plane with fetching yellow stripes 💛 I've applied what I have and I think I can get used to it. But if and when I have another print session I do a corrected set of numbers and revisit the situation. I'll keep a look out for another Frog/Hase 101C kit because that no4 airframe looks GOOD!!Quite fancy doing another 😉 I'll get the windows on and take this one to the galleries
  3. rob Lyttle
    OK, finally have some decals designed and printed for this'un and a few others including the Frog Voodoo Sun Run build. Tricky enough doing the USAF Amarillo style letters and numbers for the Voodoo but I found an online solution 😀 So fingers crossed I can pull this off. Soon would be good 👍
  4. rob Lyttle
    Chris @stringbag,have a go at self-print. Scan at a high resolution and try to adjust the yellow or cream tone back. An ordinary printer will give you a test sheet or indeed an inkjet print on decal paper. And saved as a document or pdf file, a high street print shop can laser print for you. Almost certain that you would have to supply the LASER GRADE decal paper-they'll want to see that it is laser grade. They won't want fires breaking out in their excellent printer! You can copy and paste the image as many as you need before going to the printing process
  5. rob Lyttle
    I ought to add, I've had occasion to do a makeover on a couple of metal clad planes where I'd used something like decalfix under the decals. It was a heck of a job removing those ready for the new decoration. So I found that reassuring in it's own way, although trying at the time 😃
  6. rob Lyttle
    Yea, there is something about aluminium, would be interesting to hear a metalurgist's take on it ðŸĪ” It has tested the paint makers in the real world over the decades Have you tried the "boiling with eggshells" routine with any foils?? I was a bit sceptical at first try, but it works for a dark metal result. Can't be done with sticky back foil though for obvious reasons. I've used kitchen foil upside-down on occasions for the duller effect, on wing centre panels etc on an F86 for example. Just laid over the top of my main foil covering with PVA white glue, worked fine.
  7. rob Lyttle
    And yet, modellers of all types are always on about applying decals onto a gloss paint base. Even for a matt finish final look, they'll gloss for the decals and then matt clear over that. I've had the occasional refusal on Ali foil but I came to the conclusion that issues were mostly down to variations in decal quality (or type?). I've used decal-fix in the past when in doubt but there's sticky residue which can leave marks. We love a challenge ðŸĪŠ
  8. rob Lyttle
    I gotta confess I got distracted by a little side job. And it's not even a Frog kit 😁 You know the Airfix beach buggy...? Reissued in the Vintage Classics range. With the girl in a bikini 👙 Well, the cool dude got some serious gender reassignment and there's now 2 girls, for a beach life guard vignette. Just while I had the red paint on the go. SsssshðŸĪŦ Percival will go in the gallery soon, my 1st Frog finisher
  9. rob Lyttle
    ðŸĪĐYes, we can still find ways to screw'em up to the usual standard 👍
  10. rob Lyttle
    She's up on her dainty legs and I'm ironing out a few snags and details. The trouble is, the more I look the more differences I see between a Vega Gull and a Proctor mk4!. Never mind, I've decided to press on. ðŸĪ­ And I decided to use the Dora Wings decals for the Sherborne race plane. I've seen the pictures and this airframe is not the right one for G-AFBC, but it would be on the shelf of doom otherwise. Only to discover that Dora have messed up, showing race numbers in 6 places, fuselage, fin and above and below one wing tip, and only supply 4 items on the decal sheet ðŸ˜ķ This folly has been covered on the BM review of the kit,along with discussion of whether the fuselage should be blue or red-- always tricky when referring to black and white photos! Well, accurate representation is not on the agenda here....also noticed that the nose should not be red, but silver ðŸŦĢ Just the spinner should be red..... or blue....😅 Come what may, this little Cinderella shall go to the Ball 💃
  11. rob Lyttle
    Looks splendid!!
  12. rob Lyttle
    Yes, this is the big one! I'm getting used to it's limits and ways to work around. It will take a fair bit of burnishing and working though, far more than flimsy kitchen foil.I must try and source some of this other Ali foil you mentioned. Speaking of thickness, I've concluded that most of the thickness is from the gummy glue. And it is always still there under the foil, never hardens. Right O Dennis, when you're ready....!😎
  13. rob Lyttle
    I've been using the sticky back Ali tape that builders and plumbers use for joining insulation panels and all sorts of other jobs. Done many planes with it over time and I get on alright with it. Slightly different ballgame to what you're doing. And because it's a real-world product, one roll does.....Well, loads!!😇 This is the wee Lockheed L10 Electra which is probably the most recent whole plane project... I've got one of these Heller Thunderflash kits in the pile, I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with it 😀
  14. rob Lyttle
    Quite so, Dave ðŸĪ­ Still, it's gotta get built sometime.... I've been painting, Sure brightens the thing up. I also installed a piece of Ali tube in the front piece as a bearing that will take the propeller's metal shaft eventually, and painted the piece red I'd better take a look at the undercarriage parts and get her up and standing
  15. rob Lyttle
    I LIKE it.. !😎 I'm familiar with the time and patience required to do this, especially a whole airframe and in 1.48 too. Excellent result so far 👏. I've found that raised panel lines and surface detail have their own challenges for foiling. The shiny metal seems to magnify the details, like it's creating an optical illusion with the foil. Are you working with kitchen Ali foil and a glue for this?? What ever it is, it's doing the job OK 👍
  16. rob Lyttle
    I've built a few that would fit right in to this excellent category 👍. My o my, where do I start 😀?? Well, here's the Delage D8 by Heller first up, Somebody mention Amelia's planes? I did the Lockheed L10 Electra, although not finished as her's but as theTCA restored plane. I see that @stevej60 has got an Academy F3F lined up. Nice....! Very enjoyable build... And the little Airfix trackside Scammel Scarab, still in production by Dapol products... So cool that I did 2 of 'em, dumped the silly watneys barrels and made a depot scene, all inside a supermarket profiteroles packaging display box. I had to eat the profiteroles first, which is a bit of a Win-win situation 😅
  17. rob Lyttle
    The issue with the difference in windscreen design between the Proctor and the civil Vega Gull is well illustrated in the Dora Wings instructions, probably by mistake or oversight. Here's the illustration for the Vega Gull canopy assembly... They have it very nicely represented with a number of separate parts and the opening gullwing doors can possibly be fixed in the up position. Nice. But their next illustration shows this... ...which is clearly the curved Proctor windscreen. How weird is that ðŸĪ”? Dora do a military Proctor version and I guess someone has copied and pasted that drawing. Anyway it serves to show the difference. Lady Sherborne's aircraft should have the civil styling as in the 1st picture but the Frog kit is clearly the 2nd type. I've tried a couple of times to make glazing bars with strips of Ali foil in the style it should be, but they looked rubbish. I'm thinking I'll overlook the issue, just like I'm overlooking the other differences like length. It would be interesting to get the Dora Proctor kit to have a close comparison between the two. From what I've read it's the mk4 Proctor that suffered from excessive modifications while the first 3 marks were closer to the original Vega Gull. Well, there you have it. Meanwhile the wings are fixed, rudder is on, and I'm trying to pick out the details on the one-piece Frog transparency to give some idea of the doors structure. The wing fit is quite good after a bit of surface preparation. The odd bit of filler is applied here and there around the airframe but all things considered it's not that much. I had a count up of all the parts which were rattling around loose in the bag and I think all are present 😇👍 Good news
  18. rob Lyttle
    That was easy.... The wings are just dry fitted in the slots here. The internals were not overdone, with a rear bulkhead and a bench seat fitted, and a strip of thin styrene up front to give some kind of coaming inside the windscreen. The kit rear windows got honed a little and masked before fitting. The two sides were having difficulty in mating up and I traced the fault eventually to the big internal ribs on which the floor sits. The front upright bits were interfering with Lady Sherborne's feet, and her companion. Rib lumps suitably removed and all was well. There are a number of sink marks around the fuselage, mostly underneath and a couple on top. And some stretched sprue was added on the cowling for hinges. This airframe was a prewar Vega Gull that got taken on by the RAF, served it's time, and went back on the civil register after the war. Turns out that this plane crashed killing the pilot and his family, just a few weeks after Lady Sherborne sold it. It happened only a few miles away from me, on take off from Southampton Eastleigh Airport for the short hop to Middle Wallop aerodrome. They were returning from a holiday on the continent. Sad. But in happier times it seems like the Lady Sherborne had some good flying out of the little Percival. I must research her some more. I bet she spent her wartime years ferrying Spitfires, Mosquitoes and Lancasters around the country.
  19. rob Lyttle
    I've been reading up a bit on the type, trying to get some elementary info. It seems that the Proctor 1, 2, and 3 were very similar to the V Gull and kept the original's capabilities to a large extent. (Excuse the normal numbers instead of the roman numerals-- I'll be honest with you, I just can't be bothered with that .) By the time the mk4 came out, the design had been messed about with to the extent that the plane's performance was compromised. Whereas the early types were 6inches longer on the fuselage, the mk4 may be somewhat different. The Frog kit is given as a mk4. Viewed beside the Dora Wings fuselage side, the difference is significantly more than a scale 4" I'm not going to get bogged down in fine details with this. It's getting done as a fun build. Like AdrianMF says, there's plenty of surplus Proctors got bought and put on the civil register. So far, I have this, ... and I'm now trying to get them to fit in the fuselage such that the two halves meet,. Now, Lady Sherborne flew her's in the remarkable 1952 King's Cup air race at Newcastle and I have the decor on the Dora sheet. Looks promising. Beryl Markham is out. That was nothing short of foolhardy and she was lucky to get away with it. The unfortunate plane, not so much. Scott and Guthrie won the Schlesinger Race to South Africa in a Vega Gull in 1936 and that's on the sheet, but of course that's prewar and pre-proctor, and a genuine Vega Gull. Lady Sherborne's plane had military origins that I should go back and read again but I'm thinking this is the one Jolly, isn't it 😎? The cowling though, could that be polished metal?
  20. rob Lyttle
    Ah, I see what you mean. Compared with the Dora Wings Vega Gull there is obviously an issue 🙄 Well, the abrupt answer would be No. I'll have to think along the lines of a repurposed Proctor in civil decor
  21. rob Lyttle
    A quick marker to declare my intention to have a go at this little stash-dweller. Novo decals are shot, but my Dora kit has several civil options and my intention is to utilise some of those. There's a bit of an issue with the front windscreen. The military Proctor has a rounded shape whereas the Vega Gull is made up of flat panes. But let's see how it goes 😎
  22. rob Lyttle
    Just been up in the loft doing some real world stuff and I retrieved this little bag of dereliction When I got the Dora edition of the Percival Vega Gull in civil style, I tucked the bag of Novo in with it. Dora supply several decal options and paint schemes and the intention was to use some on this little Frog relic. I notice that there are NO TAKERS yet for the Proctor 341P kit, so I'm going to put a marker down and have a go 😇
  23. rob Lyttle
    Marvin, I'm no expert on vacform canopy work..... maybe the only one was for the little L10 Electra which included a vacform cockpit top. I found it challenging....ðŸĪ­ All very flexible and uncertain. I found it useful to add stretched sprue to the bulkhead at the right height to hold the clear stuff in position for a smooth roof joint. I had a couple of other bits positioned to aid the fit at the sides. BUT... my roof was painted white with the fuselage so any visibility of my sprue addons wasn't an issue. Your joint is all see-through, especially with the open escape hatch arrangement I'm just throwing it in there in case any help along those lines sparks a solution in your mind. 😎 The nose part looks great
  24. rob Lyttle
    Setting aside the hand drawn lettering procedures, and by tenacious application of my efforts on the chromebook, I appear to have cracked the challenge of getting the right font onto a document 😄😇ðŸĪ­ No kidding, check out this bad boy... Zoom on the letters... That's your actual Amarillo USAF font style created online and downloaded and stuck on a doc page (along with some other stuff I'm working on) The only snag I had was with the "1". It had a peak just like what I've typed there. Replaced with a capital "I" and I got what I need. Scaling these is the next step. A test print on copier paper will show me where I'm at in terms of size. I've never had any success with this stuff previously so I'm feeling elated. Old dog new tricks...? Bring it on, I'm on a ROLL ðŸĪĐðŸĨ‚ðŸū
  25. rob Lyttle
    I ought to mention a slight enhancement on the cowlings. The definition of the cooling flaps is a bit poor and I applied some strips of skinny plastic to give a clean edge and the slightest of overhangs. That gives a better idea of the cooling gaps under the flaps. I did a couple more strips on the horizontal joints which weren't that good. I think with a bit of rubbing down and paint these will settle down. I learnt early on that any work on the inboard sides of cowlings and nacelles should be done BEFORE fixing the wings to the fuselage...ðŸĪŠ No use people telling you this -- you need to learn it the hard way. Then you know it....
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