tnuag

OMISSION I forgot to give the positions where the Britannia fuselage has to be cut when I wrote the instructions. The forward cut is 11.4mm forward of the wing root leading edge. The rear cut is 120mm aft of the forward cut, Thus you use a 120mm length of the original Britannia fuselage.

ARGUS DELIVERED I am pleased to say that the Argus conversion sets are now on their way to Hannants, so my project is complete One interesting thing is that this year 3D printing became available and it is giving amazing results. So far as the Argus goes, many parts which were planned to be white metal castings are now supplied in four blocks of detail parts. Not only have they finer details, but we also supply many duplicate parts to allow for breakages or loosing them in the carpet! Probably the most difficult part of the conversion will be reshaping the nacelles and reference to the many photos on the internet is important - much filler will probably be needed, but that is up to the individual. This has been quite a project, and I hope modelers enjoy the results,

All's well here and on the final stages of packing all those parts. Not long to go now.

I am delighted to see the new area. A friend told me in January about the Elegoo Mars which he got for Christmas and I bought our first Mars Pro for Aircraft In Miniature immediately. We are now on our third machine and we are changing over to 3D printing wherever possible because of the exquisite results it gives. For interest these are the machines and resins we are interested in, which may be helpful to modellers looking to get into this fascinating process: MACHINES Elegoo Mars Pro Elegoo Saturn - monochrome display Epax X-1 - monochrome display One thing to remember - the LCD display is classified as a consumable with a life of approximately 400 hour, whereas a monochrome display has a projected life of 2000 hours. We have found Neill's Materials to give the most competitive resin prices - https://www.neillsmaterials.co.uk/ I hope the above is helpful. It is definitely the way forward.

Hopefully in June - two factors delayed it; covid-19 plus sheer volume, It has involved casting some 15,0000 individual resin parts and that takes a long time!

A 1:48 version is in the pipeline - using CAD it is simple to do other scales.

While waiting for the Argus castings (of which there are hundreds being produced) I wrapped up another project which was in progress at the time of my wife's death, some seven years ago. One major advantage was that we can now produce all the master parts in house using a MSLA (masked stereo lithography) 3D resin printer. This is the first printer I have seen which builds without leaving steps between layers. Anyway here are some screen shots of the completed CAD model, equipped with SNEB pods. General view of the model. The cabin top is cast in transparent resin and includes sockets for the wings, to give a stronger construction for a high-wing aircraft. Those cylinders have individual fins which are 125 microns thick. The Matra pods under the wings have separate SNEB rocket heads supplied to simplify the painting. Cabin top and right wing removed to show interior - instrument panel is based on an actual aircraft

Firstly, the decal sheet shown was a sample of the artwork. Just looking back at the decal artwork above, is says above the graphic "He has sent this scan of the preliminary design for our information - thanks Mike." - to quote from an email from Mike Belcher on Friday last "they are available as BD-34, price $19.99". Yes a 1:144 version is worth considering, but I want to get this one out, plus a 144 Valiant B2 plus other subjects first. I will certainly look at this seriously though.

I have checked with Mike Belcher and he said "they are available as BD-34, price $19.99 and they will be fully illustrated on my website this weekend." I have also spoken to Hannants and they also plan on stocking them. I hope to see the Argus out in March. 22 Feb 2020

The Airways moulds were offered to us some years ago but I declined. Aircraft In Miniature did acquire moulds and tools from these ranges: - Skyland Models - Contrail - Formaplane - Blue Rider - Rug Rat Resins Hannants acquired moulds and tools from these ranges: - Rareplane - Airwaves - Aviation Workshop (or something like that name) Combat acquired the Magna moulds and tools. Sanger also obtained some of the Contrail moulds That is all I can remember.

We produce a set of laser printer decals for Loftleidir Icelandic Airlines - I did these because the CL-44J was built by Canadair for and at the request of Loftleidir mainly for North Atlantic services. When the aircraft entered service it reportedly had a greater passenger capacity than the 707 at the time. This is the general arrangement drawing: And this is the instruction sheet - We also include Loftleidir decals for a set of Heston steps. Both decals and steps are available from Hannants and here are the links: Decals: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72090 Heston steps: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/GE72010 I hope this helps and that you are enjoying the build.

Progress Report This conversion has taken a long time and I know many people are patiently waiting. The good news is that the last set of masters are due to be built this coming weekend (1/2 Feb 2020) and unless I decide to change something this is the parts count: Clear resin......................9 parts Resin............................106 parts Cast metal....................31 parts Etched brass.....................1 fret TOTAL PARTS................147 So as soon as the parts are cast (and there are thousands of them) they will be packed and delivered. All I have to do now is finish the instructions. So it isn't far away now !!!! The weapons bay packs have already been delivered to Hannants.

The aft end of the nacelle has flat sides to fit into the wing leading edge by around a quarter inch and have to match the Mach 2 Britannia nacelles. The nacelles have all been cast. However I agree with your comments - I will see what needs to be done.

They were alpes printed, but I may have had to do a few on white decal paper.

I have no information on the R type.