Tweener

What's that about no major progress? The two halves went together easily & the seams are mostly dealt with. The 'spacer' piece of card under the turret fairing is to reinforce two more pieces I need to add next - the opening is slightly too wide for the fairing to comfortably fit over. After that I'll finish correcting the base of the rudder and attach that too. Turret is set in temporarily and the cockpit is near ready to be added from below. Lastly, I've narrowed the search for a scheme down to two options, with one being heavily favored. More on that next Friday when I get a chance to check my mail back home. More soon, Tweener

I'll have to follow along on this one - I recently visited the Intrepid Museum and I'm considering making the Demon they had on deck

I'd just opened one of these myself, hopefully it looks as nice as this when it's done! I have to ask, did you use the propeller in the kit?

Not much progress other than discovering that Vallejo paints don't much like being thinned with water and ruining the wing of an Airfix Demon while trying to add definition to the ailerons. Is it just me, or is the plastic that Airfix uses quite bad? On the 1/72 Tiger Moth, I sliced the fuselage in half while gently cutting a cockpit door, the hardness of the plastic on the Demon wing was wildly varied, and on 2 of the 3 1/72 Blenheim's I've seen, the wings were covered in so many sink marks as to be useless. I sometimes wonder if it'd take less effort to turn the old Revell P-51D into a show piece than to get a result out of new Airfix kits... Don't get me started on the wings of the 1/72 Hurricane, for example.

I'm a little late to the big reveal, but I must say this looks great! I keep meaning to build a little airfield diorama but I can't ever seem to commit to the act. I've been thinking lately I should do something for my 43 Squadron Fury, perhaps pairing it with some of the vehicles in the Airfix refueling set, even if the years probably don't line up exactly.

If I'd been a little more attentive I might've realized I had Roger's build pulled up on the next tab when I replied last! And indeed it looks a treat! I've yet to work with most FAA colors but they make for nice schemes and I think especially so on Skua's compared to aluminum. Perhaps they hide the poor shaping? 😅 Mine was round at least, but I have my doubts about the profile of it and removing the injection pins (which I'm sure you remember are more like chunks) is proving a pain.

The whole idea of this post might have been to hold myself responsible and finish some builds for once, but then I went off and started another... After some delay, I'm back to a kit I started late last summer before moving to smaller projects once I returned to University. Some of you will have seen my questions about the Wellesley being used as a Torpedo Bomber. I'm not building that airframe (yet) but I am building the MB Wellesley. Shame I can't throw this into the GB with the Gnat (which I promise I'll be back to at the end of the month!). When I started I hastily threw in some of the framing and a floor but it was rather poorly done. So far I've cleaned it up as best as I care to given how much of it will be seen, and added a bulkhead to the navigators spot and a roof over the area behind the pilot based on @tonyot's builds. All I need to do now is add a fuel tank & the stick, finish the radio rack and framing, tidy the paint, and throw the halves together. I'm building this one as an LRDU plane as those forward fuselage halves fit minimally better than the standard bomber type. Not seen are the assembled engine and cowling and the start on wheel bay details that I added last night. If I were to guess there's another 10 I've made a start on - the cockpit of a Hector and the wings of a DH.60 Floatplane, for example, and the 3rd Airfix Demon I'm considering scratching a turret for. For what it's worth, I think 25 sounds nicer 😅 Feel free to save a chair, Tweener

I think that's the kit I'll end up going with if I ever get to the Skua - the 1/72 FROG kit is so far from accurate so as to be worthless and I haven't seen much of the 1/72 SH lately. How does it look in the box, Chris? Progress on the Roc is slow thanks to an issue with one of my Uni roommates. For whichever reason, he accused me of clogging up the sink with hair. You can imagine he was short for words when most of the hair pulled from the sink was his - black and curly. Mine's light brown and straight. Good fun! In any case, I did manage to box in the and detail the first wheel well, add a control stick and set of pedals, and throw down a first layer of paint into the cockpit. A dry fit showed the pit isn't a good fit, so some spacers were added to (hopefully) line things up if the day ever comes that I close this one up! Next up is the other wing box, finishing the interior turret details, and seeing if the included cowl can be fixed. Best, Tweener

The bit of progress I've made so far has been easier than I'd have expected, but I haven't stuck any major components together yet either. So far the cockpit has been (mostly) assembled and the turret has been cut down to size, with a few details added on. I assume the Skua is the Octopus kit? I think the next step is to source a new engine. The Roc has a Perseus, so I'll need to see how similar a Pegasus is. More soon, Tweener

Right. let's get properly started. As I mentioned in the first post, it's appropriate to shudder at this kit. Is it a Merlin? No. But the Aeroclub kits I've handled have (in my view) better details than this in a number of regards. In any case, I'm to breaking this one down into 4 sections - the wing, fuselage, turret, and engine. The good news is that neither the wing nor the turret need much work, and the better news is that I may not need the turret at all. If I build a target tug, I simply need to plug the whole, and if I build a standard Roc, I may just replace the turret with one from an Airfix Defiant and turn that kit into a tug. On the topic of replacements, I may need to replace the cowl... As you can see, I also cut the fuel tanks part in half, as the Roc only carried a single tank in place of the Skua's 2. I did source some Quickboost Defiant gun barrels - The inside of the fuselage will need some work - But the wings will progress quickly. Yes, I could always box the wells in properly, but I'll stick to just adding a square wall around the cutout - This is where my initial attention will be focused - on the wings and on the forward cockpit. What can I say, I don't dare play with the engine parts just yet. 🙃 More to follow after a Wellesley update. Oh, and I finally got red paint for the Gnat! Best, Tweener

Ladies and Gentleman, we've hit Roc Bottom. I've spent a bit of time compiling a collection of RAF / FAA types from roughly 1930-1940, with a few exceptions for aircraft that catch my eye and fall slightly outside of that decade. Naturally, this meant I had to pick up a Blackburn Roc, the FAA's turret fighter that succeeded only in being a worse counterpart to the somewhat capable (and similarly armed) Defiant. I couldn't find a 1/72 Special Hobby boxing, unfortunately, and that meant I ended up obtaining the Pavla kit. Feel free to shudder - I certainly did. So far I've mostly been trying to determine what scheme I'll built it in, but I did also manage to clean up most of the wings and I should start getting those together soon. The wings are by far the cleanest parts of the kit, and the detailing is nice, but significantly too fine. I highly doubt the vast majority of it will be seen after a single layer of paint, much less a few. As for schemes, I have a few in mind. I've got the AML sheet that includes decals for a Finnish Roc in delivery markings, and I have photos of a few target tugs serving in Egypt. The second photo clearly shows under-wing stripes, which I have to assume are yellow and black, and that precludes it from being my choice, but the other is quite interesting. I'm just not sure of the colors. I also have this pic, of a Roc (minus some parts) serving as a static AA emplacement at Eastleigh airport. All of these are quite interesting, even before one remembers the shocking lack of standardization of Roc schemes, for an aircraft with relatively few built - And then of course, we're best off forgetting this one - More to follow later today. Tweener

I visited the New England Air Museum in Connecticut, where B-29 "Jack's Hack" is on display. They also have a few other bombers, the A-26 being my favorite among them

I'll follow along if I may - I've been curious about this kit for a while, mainly because I want to build an RAF Washington but also because I spent some time inside a B-29 last fall and I'm stricken by it's immense complexity. Hopefully your father stays in good health and is able to get some enjoyment out of this build with you.

It's important to remember too that when G4/31 was issued, there wasn't yet any reason to believe another World War was so close to starting, and the general state of the RAF even without the penny-pinching of the depression wasn't great. The way I see it, the spec would be understandable in the absence of dive-bombing and torpedo bombing. Perhaps it just makes me think of the RLM wanting a dive-bombing capability out of the 177. 🤣 As for the wing - the design was largely finalized before the requirement for torpedo bombing was added, presumably to cater towards long range / high endurance for the recon and policing duties the planes would have been meant to spend the most time doing. The original Vickers entry, after all, was a somewhat more conservative and immensely more ugly biplane, the 253.

This looks lovely Chris, but I have to ask, how did you resist the urge to build the shark-mouth option!?

My understanding is that at first, the idea was to replace Wapiti and Gordon, and the need to replace the Vincent / Vildebeeste was added later. That meant that the winning design was meant to perform light Level Bombing, Low-Angle Dive Bombing, Artillery Spotting / Army Cooperation, Casualty Evacuation, Recon & Mapping, and eventually Torpedo Bombing. As for the 74 & 1/3 foot wing, I'd have to imagine the same objectives could've been fulfilled with 65. The only benefit I can see gained from the span was a service ceiling 40% higher than the Wellington, but I don't imagine Army Coop etc was often carried out from 25,000 feet!

I'm not sure why, even knowing that one of the requirements of the (absurd) G4/31 specification was the ability to do so, but the Vickers Wellesley K7740 was used for torpedo dropping tests at Gosport towards the start of the war. As you can see, this was one of the later machines of the first production batch, as determined by the extended canopy and additional windows in the center of the fuselage. To my eye, at least, it also looks like the engine cowl may be a slightly different size than those on standard bombers. From the photo, I'm assuming that the plane is still finished in the DE/DG/Black scheme other Wellesley's dressed in, and that would make sense given the lack of need to repaint it for trials, but I also believe I remember a @tonyot build of an ASW Wellesley in a different scheme. Any suspicions / confirmations? Lastly, does anyone know much about the torpedo mounting itself? I would assume that it was fitted to the centerline, but that might obscure the sighting hatch used by the bomb-aimer, though I suppose aiming a torpedo from a top-down perspective wouldn't make the most sense either. G4/31 did call for dive bombing and torpedo bombing, but I don't at least believe they were meant to be done at the same time! Thanks all, Tweener

I wish I could say I knew - I haven't seen them in a US shop for under $68 yet...

Well I suppose I'm a little late now, but I agree fully! Late last summer I purchased a MK.V Beaufighter direct from Singapore, and he messaged me with an offer - if I waited an extra few weeks, he'd go back and make new resin seats, gun barrels, and a few other details for the same charge! This was when Singapore was still on full lockdown and he didn't always have access to his office, so I was even happier when the new parts were all quite nice. The only shame is that CMK has released a conversion for a MK II Beau based on the Airfix kit just as I've gotten ready to close the fuselage of the HPM!

Please do!

Well, it took a month, but I did finally build that avionics bay floor and rear wall - Next up is detailing the bay and taking care of some gaps on the underside. Does anyone know what color the gear bays should be? I think they are white / very light gray, but they could also be aluminum. Thanks, Tweener

As mentioned, I've switched focus to the other Hurricane: The P-51 paintwork is now done, bar a few touchups to the wheel bays. The Anti-glare panel looks not far short of poo-poo, but that's the joys of Model Masters OD Acrylic - great for the first few uses, and outright miserable after: Lastly, some of you will recall I started the MB Gnat for the groupbuild - here is is now: Tomorrow I aim to finish paintwork on the ARII P-40, Hurricane PR, and Mustang, and then work on the seams and gaps of the Gnat. I still haven't ordered the red paint, but that should happen soon. I'm debating picking up the Roden Camel to go with some decals I have for a 43 Squadron plane. Naturally, the kit comes with a 43 Squadron scheme anyways,.. Pays to check Scalemates!

If you're looking for a better Grebe, I have the Aeroclub kit, and I could probably be convinced to part with it.

Some (slight) progress to report - The Mustang now has outer gear doors and exhausts and will soon have a tailwheel. The first coat of the anti-glare is down, and I've almost finished painting the darker metal panel around the exhausts. There's a few spots to touch up on the silver, but that shouldn't take long : Additionally, the Nieuport now has a prop, and the Hurricane prop is almost painted. The Magister received a tiny bit of sidewall detail and the floor is the next priority : Now I just have to convince myself that my stash is large enough without picking up the Italeri Stirling and Print Scale decals for an Egyptian transport... Hopefully I can at least finish the Mustang and Nieuport! I may switch this Hurricane for a Heller one I've made into a PR bird instead - that one is closer to done. More updates later, Tweener

Well now I feel a bit silly, I'd been looking at a Bulldog with 19th markings just the other day and it skipped my mind already! Great work on painting the Siskin, and of course on this Spit as well. I almost picked up 3 of the Airfix kit the other day but figured the one I have is enough... Now I think I should have 🤣