Chewbacca

Didn't know that so thanks. Surprisingly, for a model that the actual vehicle still exists, there's not much reference material. This particular vehicle was restored by Dennis and used to sit in their factory near Guildford but in recent years seems to have been transferred to the Transport Museum in Coventry. But unfortunately it was "upgraded" in the 1930s and a lot of the original details were lost. Also the iconic wheeled ladder seems to have been replaced by a smaller standard ladder. So I think my main reference is going to be another build thread but for the 1/16 version of this vehicle built by a real master here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80618. I know his is twice the size but that is stunning. I've been pondering how to quilt the seat in 1/32 scale...

That looks very tidy compared to mine. So much so that I had to spend a couple of hours this afternoon stripping it all down and cleaning it, principally because I've lost my Tamiya tape. It's got to be there somewhere but even with the bench completely empty, its nowhere to be seen. Good job I won't need it for a few weeks. Anyway, Carriers Ahoy Seahawk complete so my hat now thrown into the ring for this one. I settled on the 1914 Dennis Fire Engine in the end because I think I can realistically finish it in the time remaining as opposed to something in 1/600 that has no chance. Besides my daughter saw it and asked if she could have it in her bedroom once it was complete; how could I say no. Build thread started here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235040542-132-1914-dennis-fire-engine/

Okay, so 5 weeks late to the party but I wanted to get the Carriers Ahoy Seahawk finished before I started anything else. In fairness the last time I made one of these it took me an afternoon so being a few weeks late should make that much difference. Part of me would like to go to town on this and super detail everything to see what it is possible to make from one of these. But there are no aftermarket parts available to the best of my knowledge so any detailing will be scratchbuilt. Nothing wrong with that but it does take a wee bit longer and knowing the pressure of work that I am under at the moment, coupled with the fact that I will lose 3 weekends in the middle of this for the annual family, holiday, I think I will keep it as close to out of the box as my conscience will allow! Initial look at the sprues reminds me that it is a s clunky as we might expect for a model first produced over 50 years ago. But in fairness the mouldings are reasonably crisp with not too much flash although I'm not sure what I will be able to do with the figures. they really do show their age and I fear will make it look very toylike when complete. I'll see what they look like after a clean up and a coat of primer. I must confess the red plastic takes me back a few years. I think the last kit I had in red plastic was the AMT ambulance and that must have been 40 years ago. I had a look for a copyright marker but the only one I could see lacked a date, simply saying Airfix Hobbies ©. But I don't think there's any doubt that this is the original mould. So the box shot: Sprue shots: And the instructions. Sadly as you can see, I have 2 sets of Fire Engine instructions and no omnibus instructions. Though I don't need them just now, i will at some point. I'm sure I can download then from ATF. For the same reason I won't publish every page of the instructions; if you're interested they're almost certainly on ATF.

Trumpeter 1/48 Seahawk FGA6, 804 NAS, HMS BULWARK, Operation Musketeer November 1956 Largely build out of the box but with some scratchbuilt embellishments mainly round the cockpit. Build thread here: Figures are lightly modified Eduard 1042 US Navy Personnel. The deck is 5mm MDF covered in 320 gauge Wet & Dry . Paint is a mix of Vallejo, Tamiya and Humbrol, mostly sprayed but details picked out by brush. Overall it was a fun build and the first FAA jet I've done for about 10 years.

I think this is a first for me - a GB completed within the time limits. My last one (on ATF) was 10 months late! Anyway here it is. Still not overly happy with the fuselage Aden stripes but it's about the best I'm going to achieve. Aerials (part B11 & B19) were replaced with 0.1mm nickel rod from Albion Alloys which is probably a bit closer to the scale size even though the kits ones were commendably thin, they probably still equated to about 25mm in real life. I always like to put my models into context if I can and so here you can see the armourers putting the finishing touches to the 3 inch rockets before handing the aircraft over to the pilot for his next mission over Egypt. Figures are modified Eduard 1042 US Navy Personnel. Their rate and specialisation badges were hand printed. Unfortunately there use dot be a very good online reference that showed every single RN specialisation badge but it seems to have disappeared. There is one that does a cross section but the artwork is not great. I may at some point in the future add the rocket deck trolley. I've seen one in a YouTube video but I'll be blowed if I can find it anywhere and there are no images that I can see. there are some shore side ones but I'm pretty certain the ones used on aircraft carriers were different. The deck is 5mm MDF covered in 320 gauge Wet & Dry and sprayed Vallejo Dark Grey Whilst this model threw up a whole raft of issues, it was a fun build and using the lessons learnt from this one, I do plan to do another one in the later colours of the RNHF 806 NAS Ace of Diamonds cab.

Not all of us do! How do you define a perfect new release list? One that has no Spitfires, Hurricanes, P51s, Me109s or FW190s

I'll second that. This is very nicely finished. My weathering is either too much or near non-existent.

It didn't look like a tank model. Unfortunately it was so large and in a glass case with light reflecting from everywhere it was near impossible to get a half decent photo.

Well if we're going to have a new Lynx, how about a fully tooled up HAS 3 GMS in 1/24 scale with all of the Gulf modifications - Yellow Veil, ALQ157, HMP, M130, Sandpiper. I can even let them have my noseart royalty free .

So the member of staff at The Riverside was telling me! It looks very arty and attractive to casual visitors but not very good for research. And it has to be said some of the models in there are really shoddy. they have a 12 ft long supposedly shipbuilder's model of QE2. There's more detail in the 1/600 Airfix kit!

So I got along to the Riverside Museum in Glasgow last week and sure enough they do have the model of BULOLO. It's not quite clear if it represents her as built or after she was returned to commercial use in late 1946 - I think the former. Unfortunately, she was displayed in a very artistic multi-model display case...about 12 ft up! So I had a cracking view of the hull, screws and rudder but everything else was a little challenging. The museum staff were excellent and even tried to find a step ladder for me (ignoring the obvious health & safety limits that would normally preclude this) but couldn't find one. This is the best I could get: Fortunately they did have some photos in a rolling graphic display so I tried to get some of those. Not brilliant but at least it gives some idea of the layout of deckhouse. etc.

Been away for a week on business and then trying to sort out my late father-in-law's house but hopefully back this afternoon. Just the panel line wash, 3inch rockets and base to finalise so should be done this week.

If it has to be another Spitfire derivative, how about a 1/24 Seafire. I know I'm biased but FAA subjects do seem to be popular at the moment as evidenced by the F4-K, Sea Fury, Walrus etc and to my knowledge no one has done one. In fact in continuing that theme, how about a 1/24 F4-K?

Starting to think about weathering. Does anyone know if the underwings fuel tanks were aluminium or GRP? I suspect the former.

I am beginning to think that this model is trying to tell me something! So I managed to finish spraying the fuselage Aden stripes. Took off the masking and the black had all run through onto the yellow. I couldn't face another 2-3 hrs trying to remask it so I resorted to brush to try to touch it up. Then turned my attention to the undercarriage doors. Despite everything I tried, I couldn't bend the port undercarriage leg back after it distorted while in the spray booth without risking breaking it. I do have a cunning plan but that will have to wait until its fitted to the flight deck base. Managed to fit all bar one of the doors - including refitting the front nosewheel door which broke off in the spray shop - but as I was fitting the aft nosewheel door with the model balanced upside down on two pots of Tamiya paint, the weight I had in the nose to keep the nosewheel on the ground decided that it was going to drag the model off the bench and onto the floor. Fortunately its a fairly strong model and the only casualty was the nosewheel leg itself which snapped just above the yoke. When refitting this I managed to drop the whole nosewheel/yoke assembly into the small pool of superglue that I was using to place drops on the leg and when I picked it out and tried to clean it off, the CA took all of the paint off. By this stage I was ready to launch the whole thing off a catapult into the nearest bin but stepped away and came back 30 mins later. Then I was about to fit the Kleared fuel tanks when I thought, that's a very dark sky compared to the rest of the underside and realised that I had Kleared over primer! So time to paint the tanks! this model really was trying my patience! That said, I can see light at the end of the tunnel (is that an express train coming my way?). Off on a business trip this week and then away next weekend so no work for a week but when I do get back its fuselage roundels, fuel tanks, 3 inch rockets, aerials and pitot to fit, then a final coat of Klear and an oil pinwash and it should be done. But I'll bet something else will go wrong before then. I think I'm going to stick to floaty things in future. And I've only just noticed from scrutiny of the photos that there's virtually no ground clearance on that stbd uc main door...

On another forum I read that in 2017, the only brand in the group that turned a profit was Airfix. Lots of talk on here about Airfix being too expensive and yes, to a degree, I agree with that. I am very fortunate that having worked all of my life and now in a reasonably successful senior position, I can spend £100+ as I have just done on two Atlantic models 1/350 resin ships. But I'd prefer not to. I'd prefer to give my money to Airfix if they produced models that I wanted to build to the quality that expect for that money. Sadly, with a very few recent exceptions (Walrus, Sea Fury), they don't. £21 for a 1/72 single seat, single engine jet fighter (the Lightning F6) had better be pretty good to justify that price. On the other hand, Wingnut Wings continue to prove month after month that they can turn out new tool sometimes quite obscure 1/32 WW1 aircraft and they seem to sell like hot cakes at £70-270 and turn a profit to enable investment in new tooling. I think it is true to say that the pocket money model days of the 60s and 70s are gone. The successful manufacturers now are the ones who have trned to the high end, more expensive but importantly very good quality products. And if they can get the quality, I am sure they will sell well against their competitors. Sadly I take no encouragement from the CEO's statement that there is any chance of a return to the maritime market anytime soon. Which given that my wish list for 2019 would be headed by a series of new tool 1/600 cold war RN warships means that I shall continue to live in disappointment! I'd take a 1/48 F4-K though...

I'm doing basically what both of you suggest, but to be fair I am using EZ line which to get it to the right thickness has to be stretched to about 5/6 times its original length so perhaps that's the problem. I will get some Uschi or Infini before I do my next batch of rigging and give that a go. Thanks for your help. My camera eqpt is not dissimilar to you General M (Canon rather than Nikon) but what I don't have is the lighting rig and hence I get deep shadows from the flash or discolouration from the not quite so natural lighting if I shoot without flash. How do you set up the background card so that you get a seamless join from the horizontal to the vertical? The only time I tried to introduce a natural roll to length of white card to eliminate a harsh angle, the tension in the card nearly threw the model onto the floor!

It's got to be in the house somewhere. It's probably lurking with the other one I couldn't find, an early boxing of HMS TIGER complete with a WEM PE and a lot of resin bits (Seacat launchers, Sea Kings HAS2s etc) ready to be converted to the helicopter carrier variant.

Happy to help though my speciality is to take aged Airfix 1/600 and try to turn them into something half decent,; I'm not really into modern kits. That said, I was given the Atlantic models 1/350 ARROW and NEWCASTLE for Fathers Day to be built as two of my former ships, ALACRITY and GLASGOW. In fairness, the thing that has also put me off talking to AMW about doing some builds for them is the photography requirement. Though I can build the models, write the words and take a decent model photo, I've never quite managed to get that seamless white or blue background that they seem to want. The challenge I find with this or any other elastic rigging line is that the tension is so much that they bend brass yard arms or mastheads which is why these days I tend to revert back to extended sprue. Any tips you've got as to how to get the rigging line in place without bending the mast the minute you let go of the free end would be appreciated.

Okay so nearly finished the Seahawk for the Carriers Ahoy GB and whilst waiting for the fuselage stripes to dry which I've had to respray as the decals were utter rubbish (long story, detailed in the GB thread), I thought I'd have a rummage through the stash to see what came up. Quickly found the Dennis Fire Engine that I was thinking of doing. It's the twin box with the 1910 Omnibus from the mid 2000s, but they both date from the early 60s (and I clearly remember making both of them in the early 70s at least once if not twice) so I'm comfortable they're both eligible. I was tending towards the fire engine but then I thought that somewhere up there is the James Bond autogyro that I picked up at a school fete some years ago for about £2.50 and to the best of my knowledge, I've never made it. That might be quite different but can I find it? Not a chance. It's got to be there somewhere but where is beyond me. I did find the MANXMAN/SUFFOLK dual boxing that I didn't know I even had so that was a nice surprise, especially as I've just finished reading an excellent book on the ABDIEL class minelayers and was about to bid on one on Ebay. I also found an original boxing of QUEEN ELIZABETH that I started in about 1980 and FORRESTAL that I started in about 1979, all of which are eligible but none of which could be completed in the time allowed for this GB. So unless I can find the autogyro by the weekend, 1914 Dennis Fire Engine it's going to be.

That's encouraging. Having collected AMW since Issue 1 I was about to give it up if I saw yet another month where it was Mirage after Mirage or obscure Swedish jet thing that no-one's ever heard of and no mention of maritime modelling. I spoke to the previous editor at the Yeovilton show about 2 years ago and his comment was that maritime didn't sell magazines. I asked him on what he based that statement and he responded by saying just look at the number of Airfix new ship releases in the past 5 years. A good friend of mine is Malcolm Lowe who contributes widely to that magazine and I know he's been lobbying Chris on the maritime behalf so it looks as if the message has gotten through. I even got one of mine in last month's issue on the Vikings Show report page.

Well that was a frustrating evening. Flattened the hand brushed paint (in fact I almost took it all off) but every time I loaded the airbrush with paint, it sprayed one pass then clogged. I would then spend 20 minutes cleaning it out. Reload, one pass then clog. Happened about 4 times with 2 different Iwata airbrushes. I tried playing with the density of the paint mixture and it was either thin and watery, which would spray, or add just one tiny drop more to thicken it and it blocked. To make matters worse I managed to break the nosewheel door and bend the main undercarriage. I'm thinking I should have stuck with the handbrushed and gone heavy on the weathering.

Count me in - I've got the Hasegawa FG1 and a set of F4-K decals so back to the old ARK ROYAL here we go. Unless of course by then Airfix have done the decent thing and scaled up their F4-K to the proper scale!

Fortunately I found last night that Hu trainer yellow enamel is a near perfect match for the yellow so have touched up the wing stripe leading edges and put a first coat of yellow down on the fuselage. I must confess I couldn't face masking the whole aircraft and going through he rigmarole of cleaning the airbrush after spraying enamel so after masking the front and rear of the fuselage stripes I brush painted it to see what the result was like. It'll need a good flatten down with some 1000 grade wet and dry before a second coat but I think it will be okay. Provided I can smooth it off sufficiently with the wet 7 dry I will spray the top coat now that I know that it works. Looks like I'll be painting the jet pipes for a third time! Curiously I also fitted all of the stencils last night and one is very interesting. No 30 reads: HOOD JITE SON BRIAN WINDOW PULL 10 RELLASE I wonder who Brian Window is? I think it should read HOOD JETTISON BEHIND WINDOW PULL TO RELEASE

Latest on this is that I have been in email contact with the museum and I am visiting to view the BULOLO model next week. the curator is also going to have a search through the archives for any other information they may have on her. This project has a fighting chance of coming together.