Heather Kay

Today, Best Beloved had a Covid booster booked mid-morning. He's not in the first flush of youth, and has various infirmities, and although we are married and I am effectively his career, I didn’t think I was eligible for the booster yet as I’m not in the current target age. I was still offered it, so I willingly stuck my arm out! As luck would have it, the seasonal flu jabs were also being done and we both got a dose of that as well. A very satisfying morning, and no major ill effects either. With the day disrupted, and expecting some minor reactions as before, I decided to play with Annie. Well, hello there. A pair of Cheetahs painted up, cowled and glued on the nacelles. Still some filler needed on the leading edge wing root on the port side. The Flightpath PE oil radiators. They look fabulous, and will be even better after paint. It was while working out where these lived under the engines that it became very obvious the illustrator of the SH instructions didn’t really have a clue where anything went. Much poring over photos followed, which also led me to add a couple of bits of brass tube in the nacelle sides to represent what I think is the hole for the handle to wind up the inertial starter. I have a pretty good idea where the exhaust pipes go, and the stub ones don’t go where SH think they do. I have some detailing to sort out under the nose, and then the adventure of the undercarriage to come. I’m not really looking forward to sorting that out. Things are coming together pretty quickly now.

I felt in the mood for some more tinkering. Can you see them? Tiny Flightpath details to flesh out the engines. I’m not at all sure what they represent, but could be part of the fuel pump system or an oil pump. They’re in now. I need to paint these critters soon. I’m also going to attempt to construct the oil cooler radiators from the Flightpath set. They will, hopefully, look a whole lot nicer than the resin mouldings in the kit. Flightpath provides radio mast and direction finding loop. The mast is three parts, formed and carefully soldered together. The DF loop is four parts, again soldered. I didn’t trust CA for this job. Not fitted is a laminated pitot, which I will fit when I do some detail work under the nose. I reckon that’s it for this session.

You know how it is. Leave a model near the bench and you can’t help tinkering. I started greeblifiying things. There are lots of PE actuating parts provided in the SH kit. These are hinge parts, but the actual lever parts are going to be very vulnerable and I’ll leave those until after painting and transfers. I am also trying to use as many Flightpath PE bits as I can. The fret provided nicely detailed rudder hinges, and the counterweight/antenna base thingy at the top. I wasn’t convinced it would actually fit, but with a bit of tweaking I think it’ll be okay. Like many PE parts, although made of two pieces glued together, it still looks a bit two-dimensional. I’ll live with it, mainly because the kit styrene part is terribly anaemic and nothing like the real thing. Like the wing details, the elevator and rudder actuators will be fitted post-painting. I think I shall turn attention back to the engine and cowling detailing.

I wish! The masking won’t survive removal and replacing. If I’d had the sense, I’d have scanned the sheet and created my own with the Silhouette. I don’t have the sense! After a bit of day job work, I’ve just scrutinised the Anson. A couple of little holes need a spot more filler, and I must not forget some of the external greeblies that really should go on before I get serious with the paintbrushes. Otherwise, I see an end in sight. Not this week, but sometime next week at least.

I decided I needed to reach a sort of milestone. Best Beloved and I are away this coming weekend, and it would be nice to see some actual progress on Annie before I pack everything away. With everything winglike filled and sanded, I attached the horizontal stabilisers. I decided to go the pin-and-glue route. While I’ve not had major issues with other builds, there’s always the risk a butt joint breaks at a critical juncture, with the potential to upset one's equilibrium. A little Perfect Plastic Putty along the tailplane joins, and I could get a coat of something on to act as witness primer. As I’ve done before on a brush-painted model, I use Humbrol Matt 29 Dark Earth acrylic. The batches I have in stock brush wonderfully straight from the pot, and it’s a quick job to get a reasonably dense layer of paint on things. Once it dried, I’ll inspect and make good anything painfully obvious. There’s a little step between the cockpit greenhouse and the cabin roof, but I’m going to not see it. Despite best efforts at careful fitting, something is a little misaligned somewhere and it’s too late now. I suppose I had better get on with proper work now.

Would you believe I got a little styrene bothering done? I had fettled the lower wing section a while back, to ensure it was a nice fit into the fuselage. The next job was to fit some internal bits in the nacelles. As is typical, there are no location ledges or marks, and the instructions wave in a distracted sort of way to stick them sort of in there, ish. A bit of dry fitting, head scratching and decisions to just go for it and hope followed. I mean, it’s not like the location of the bulkhead is important, such as somewhere the main undercarriage locates. I spent a good while making styrene shavings in a vain attempt to thin the trailing edges. Eventually… The upper wings were attached, and once the cement had hardened, the joins were tidied up. Then it was an attempt at fitting it all to the fuselage. I found I needed to remove a fair chunk of the upper wing halves in order to achieve an okay fit. The first go had the wings dead flat, when there has to be a slight dihedral. Much cursing and filing later and this is the best I managed. To work out how much material to remove, I dry fitted as best I could, then ran a fine pencil along the fuselage wing root to leave a witness mark on the upper wing. A big file made short work of the excess, testing for fit as I went, The horizontal stabs are not attached yet. I’m still pondering whether I want to trust a butt joint or to make and fit brass wire pins. Not at all pretty, and quite the ledge on the fuselage side to be dealt with. Some of that nice engraved detail may have to be sacrificed, once filler and sanding has been deployed. Happily, underneath isn’t too bad. Not great, but not too bad. Much filler has been applied to the wing roots, and I shall get some sanding sorted out before I stop for this session. It nearly looks like an Anson.

Thanks Ed! That’s actually helped. I read the Wiki entry, and the crucial bit missing to my reading was what actually covered the wooden wingbox and ribs. Now it’s obvious it was ply. I was aware of the Airfix Anson mangling. No idea what possessed them to do that. Strange times. And I try to keep up with Moa via his blog, but it generally lacks the back and forth his threads here always engendered. Anyway… Checking the SH box art, they’ve painted the wing lights in. This leads to a problem, because there is no hint as to how to locate a slot if the builder has to make one. So, I’m going to go with the lazy way out and ignore the lack entirely. I have no proof the aircraft I’m modelling even had the lights, so who is to argue? And if it turns out later I’m wrong, well so be it. I’m big enough and ugly enough to take it on the chin! Equally, I think I’ll quietly ignore the engraved panels all over the wing surfaces. I do want to finish this build one day. I really don’t fancy filling everything and then having to carefully sand around details that are supposed to be there. (I did check, and my Modeller's Licence is current.)

You are not wrong, Ed. You sent me scuttling off to seek images of real planes to see what I could see. Sadly, period images tend either not to clear enough to show much detail, or rarely show wings in plan form. There are some good shots, however, of a preserved MkI in flight. Caveat emptor and all that, but there was some serious panel work on display in one image. It gave every impression of a metal skin over a wooden frame, with "oil canning" and rivets like they were going out of fashion. Now I’m even more confused, because even reading up on the construction method used for the wings doesn’t make it clear whether the surfaces were plywood or metal, or whether what I saw was an artefact of keeping an 80-plus-year-old airframe flying. And then we come to the leading edge landing lights or not. The SH kit includes a lovely clear part, a reasonable resin part, but no slot in the port wing. There’s no mention of the landing lights in the instructions, either. Again, scuttling off to the images, I find all kinds of variations on the theme: early planes with the nose light, but no wing lights, but then some with the wing lights. Later planes without the nose light must have had wing lights. With a type in such long service, there may well have been examples of retrofitting over the years. The thought crept into my noddle that the kit parts may be for another variation, and not MK-V. The clear sprue does, after all, include the windscreen and canopy for the earlier sloping variant, and alternative non-lit nose caps. With the impending Airfix 1/48th kit also covering MK-V, I had a quick squint as to what their research had kicked up. I’ll not bother with markings yet, as that’s a whole different kettle of fish, but the Big A have included wing lights. Unless actual 1940 photos of N9732 show up - something I haven’t found for such an apparently celebrated aircraft, oddly - and unless there’s something definitive concerning wing lights and build batches, I am leaning towards leaving them off the model. What does the BM Massive think? Meanwhile, I hope to get some wing construction done today, between the chores.

Hoo boy, Edward. That’s some tale. Speaking, as one does, from the sh*itshow - I feel I can say that, as a senior Dimbleby said it on a BBC podcast, so it must be true - that used to be a fairly sensible country, things really don’t look rosy all round. I’m pleased to report there are signs the lumbering masses here are waking up at last, and should be a proper force to be reckoned with. Change must be afoot, and hopefully it will be for the good in the end. As for your situation, well, there’s not much I can do to help. Offering words of comfort won’t help. I suppose our just being here, your virtual model club, has to be some kind of solace. How you manage to carve out a few minutes of our company each day will be something you’ll have to work out for yourself, I’m afraid. Suffice to say, you are missed when you’re not around. Sending a few positive vibes westwards across the Pond.

Whenever I visit the Kent Battle of Britain museum at Hawkinge I always feel obliged to buy something from the shop. Airfix have just reissued this kit with new markings options. Now, I built the first iteration some time ago, and I felt I wanted to have another go at it to make a slightly better job this time round. Into the stash it will go while I acquire masking set and other details if I feel like it. I might be tempted to do a dual build against the ICM Do215 I also have. Then again, perhaps not.

And that’s why I pronounce it "transfer". Only two possible ways to say it, short "a" and long "a". I already have my coat…

When I first encountered it, I had no idea. I’d never heard it spoken, only seen it in print. So, I assumed "dee-cal" at first. I tried "duh-CAL" for bit, thinking it was of French extraction (it probably is). Some US modellers say "dee-cal", and some say "deckle". I tend towards the latter now.

I agree. I remember those little transfers you stick on your arms. Letraset was also rub-down transfer. It’s all semantics, really. However, when I started sticking model kits together, with my thumb prints and Dad's help, the sheets of markings were called transfers. I checked back in my instructions collection - I’m not the only one who keeps them, surely! - and I found an old 1970s Airfix sheet referring to applying transfers (as well as Airfix enamel colours). Once Heller/Humbrol got involved, it became decals (and Humbrol enamels). Likewise, Matchbox called them "waterslide transfers", only changing to "decal" after Revell bought the rights. So, being officially an old fart and card-carrying curmudgeon, I calls 'em transfers and be damned!

I pronounce it "transfer".

I’d don’t think I’d like to be the driver. Fuel tank right in front of you, and all the ammunition packed either side…