Dr. Quack

This pic reminded me of an incident a few years ago. Our family had spent a couple of memorable holidays in Bavaria, at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I later found a beautiful screen saver which displayed a 360 degree rotating panorama from the top of a nearby alpine peak - the shandy. I was subsequently investigated by the Health Board as the IT department had become aware of my shandy Screensaver, and reported me for installing inappropriate material on a Health Board computer! Quack. (strangely no longer to be found on the GMC list)

What a magnificent project, and so well executed. I remember seeing her on the A1 many years ago, and thankfully never saw her in her state of distress. I confess to a little lump in the throat seeing the pictures of her tortured decline, and now knowing about her deserved restoration. I think making this build would be too much for me. Softy Quack. who wiped tears from his eyes when the Vulcan howled.

I've used the QB set and highly recommend them - effortless fit, and they also come with resin covers for the nose data probes. Hope that helps. Q

You must be making a dent in the stash by now Alistair. Looking forward to watching this one develop. Q

I see old Psmith has joined up at last. Excellent says Quack. First rate chap that. Leave it to Psmith, I always say. Welcome to the forums!! I look forward to some entertaining posts. Q

Lovely finish. You must have a very steady hand and good eyes. I don't think I could attempt those dots - superb outcome. Q

A beauty. You've managed the tricky curved demarcation lines (my nemesis) perfectly, and the stripes look spot-on to my eye. Love it. Q

Superb attention to detail translated into immaculate work. Q

Thanks everybody for your kind supportive comments. Thanks specially to @Biggles87 @72modeler @DonH and @James G for all the suggestions for cockpit hose making ........ one of the wonderful things about BM is the willingness of people to encourage and help, and to share their experience and tips. Thanks all Q

Really coming along nicely. Painting is excellent as usual. Q

I have recently been impressed by the versatility of oils for all kinds of weathering. There's a good overview of different techniques on the Inner Nerd`s video build of an RAF Phantom here..... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ABABT2Nf4dI The build clearly shows the methods for getting a variety of results - I learned a lot! In essence, use well thinned oils on top of gloss finishes / varnish for panel line washes and picking out engraved details. The gloss surface will allow the wash to flow into the detail lines. A satin varnish surface will grip the oils more - denser spots of colour can be worked into a surface with a stippling action - I use an old firm brush with the hairs cut short. This can highlight panels and surface features. Whole panels can similarly be lightened or darkened for tonal variation, sun bleaching effect etc. Spots of undiluted colour can be dotted then smeared with a flat brush moistened with thinners to create streaks. Have a look at the video - much easier than trying to read my garbled explanation! Let us know how you get on. Q

What a magnificent outcome! You've clearly done a huge amount of work detailing the old Airfix kit. Lovely finish and a great scheme. Q

Thanks Mike @72modeler, that sounds like a great plan. If my current hoses end up looking rubbish I'll get some solder. Thank you kindly Ali. I'm using the instructions but virtually nothing is being built in the Revell sequence. Thanks for looking folks. Grateful Quack.

Chapter 3 In which Quack Seeks to Inspire the Next Generation Quack sits in his study, comfortable in his favourite battered old chair, and gazes fondly at his two nephews. He has kindly agreed to child-mind the pair - "agreed" of course meaning that their parents had arrived, dropped them at the door then driven away, extremely fast, with mumblings of "Can't stop", something indistinct about "England in the Final," and "Hurry dear, pubs open." Quack mused for a while, pondering how best to entertain a pair of X-Box obsessed youngsters, and still trying hard to remember their names. Finally, his face lights up. "I've a treat for you young 'uns," says Quack. "Sit nicely and I'll tell you all about the progress on my Tornado. Are you sitting comfortably?" Nephew #1 grunts. "I'm only sittin' ere cos you've stapled my trousers to the floor!" "Good lad," says Quack. "Can't you keep still Nephew Two?" "But Uncle Quack, I really need a wee!" Quack frowns, and makes a mental note to improve the security measures protecting his beer stash. Right young 'uns, I've made a bit of progress since you visited last. First, I've found a colour that vaguely matches the Eduard Look cockpit base colour. It's a Light Grey FS36495 (I think) so really not strictly accurate for a Tornado, but it more or less matches the Eduard colour. 16 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr Then I've made a start on the ordnance - 2x AIM9Ms and 2x Alarm missiles which will be mounted under the fuselage. These are all Eduard Brassin resin & etch sets which are slightly fiddly but actually go together quite easily. Seats are starting to get a bit of paint. 18 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr Cockpit roughly painted and mounted in place. 19 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr I've been trying hard to find a way of reproducing the demist hoses which run between the ejection seat headbox and cockpit sidewalls - I tried using sewing thread following @Biggles87's excellent suggestion - unfortunately our thread seems too large a diameter and the result looked out of scale. Latest trial is to use fine fuse wire wrapped in even finer wire stripped from an old computer monitor cable. Not perfect but I think it'll do. 20 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr Next step was to start assembling the mid-fuselage. the intake trunking piece incorporates several bulkheads which secure onto the flat fuselage underbody. Most build threads I've read suggest difficulty getting the various parts to align properly near the intakes, so I only glued the 2 rear bulkheads and left the other components unglued. The undercarriage bays are in place but as yet unglued. I'd hoped that this would give me plenty of flexibility to get a good alignment when it comes to constructing the intakes. 22 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 23 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr So much for theory and careful planning! When it came to dry fitting the fuselage sides, it was apparent that there would be a large step at the rear of the fuselage, so something was way out of place already! 24 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr The problem was the intake assembly which is too far forward, and so stopping the fuselage side from aligning. 25 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr Luckily the intake trunking is only glued at 2 point at this stage so it could be eased out and realigned. The locating grooves where the bulkheads seat are actually quite broad and allow a lot of unwanted movement. Older and wiser, well older anyway, its' time to try that again! 26 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 27 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr While we're working on the fuselage sides, I note from other builds that the exhaust port in front of the port U/C bay is an odd shape and should be more square. 28 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr So it gest mangled a bit - still to be smoothed out properly. 29 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr The fuselage sides are now glued - hoping that things are in a good position - I'm a bit anxious as I know that slight alignment errors have knock-on effects through the build and it may all end in disaster. Again the forward components have not been glued - hoping to give myself a bit of wiggle room when aligning the awkward intake parts. 31 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr From underneath it can be seen that there is still no glue up for'ard - there is plenty of movement and spring in the parts which I expect I'll need later. 32 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr Finally - the forward fuselage is together. Getting the parts well aligned is quite tricky. There is quite a bit of subtle flash on most parts and every mating surface needs sanded and dry fitted before committing to glue. 33 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr "There now young 'uns," sighs Quack, "Wasn't that interesting, eh?" "Awwww bless ............... they've fallen asleep...." Keep calm and mangle plastic. Q

You could apply the masks then a light clear coat ..... this would protect the base colour and also provide a seal for the mask edges preventing seepage under the mask when you spray the next colour. Worked well for me spraying the long fuselage demarcation line and invasion stripes on my Sea Fury build. Don't make the clear layer too heavy or you may end up with a raised edge. Q