Heather Kay

Couldn't resist. Is it just me, or is there a definite hint of Zero here? The cowling join cracked as I stuck it on, hence the daub of PPP.

Scalemates says it was a new tool in 1964. The latest boxing is very recent. The quality of the parts Ced is working with strikes me as long past the best before date.

It does, doesn’t it. It does seem to have been in production far longer than the moulds should have been.

Not wishing to add another tool to your "tart list", if you have such a thing as a brass wire scratch pen, you might be able to partially resurrect clogged sanding sticks.

Right, where was I? Ah, yes. Paint. Humbrol 85 satin black. I’m not going to bother about highlights or anything. Once stuck in the cowling and with the prop and spinner on, there’s not much left to see, sadly. These two sticks are one pair of the four machine guns. Someone with injection moulding knowledge might be able to explain why these are not fed from the ends, instead of leaving a massive knob of plastic to clean off the middle. Infuriating. So, instead of failing to clean up plastic, I whizzed up some 1mm diameter brass rod in my Dremel. Aside from the main undercarriage and canopy, this is all that’s left to attach to the airframe now. See what I mean about the engine? I drilled out, miraculously more or less down the centre, for the prop boss. A length of 0.7mm wire has been glued to the prop assembly. It will spin, but not freely. Not bothered, really. It’s more than the kit designers expected! The main airframe is looking tidy. The tailplane needed adjusting, as I’d attached one side on the wonk. Two further attempts, and it’s now square. Underneath, and you can see the worst amount of filler at the rear of the wings. Tiny tail castor and gun pods attached. The latter needed the gun holes drilled out. All that was mould was fine ovals, to which I assume one was supposed to butt join the guns after they’ve been successfully extracted from the tree and cleaned up. Right. Now you see why I made metal replacements. If I get the cowling attached next, and mask the canopy and fit it, I think it’s about time to prime.

The engine block only needs a gentle sanding on the back side, but then needs umpteen valve rods glued in. You can see where I lost one and had to replace it with brass wire. Unsurprisingly, there’s no clue as to the correct length of the rods, so pinging them from the pour block is an act of faith. Some are shorter than others. I used PVA to sit them in place, which allowed me a little wriggle room to get things sort of aligned, and followed up with drops of CA to reinforce. I'm going to need to drill out the shaft. Currently, the instructions expect me to glue a shaft to the propeller, and then glue that to another shaft. That would look, charitably, quite bizarre. Time for some paint, I think.

It’s not quite that simple, but essentially as a general rule enamel can go on acrylic, but not the other way. It’s to do with the solvents that take a while to gas out from the enamel and affect the water-based acrylic. Now I’ve said that, expect a million comments saying different things! It all very much depends on the chemical makeup of the paint, but if you follow the general rule you’re pretty safe.

The last couple of models I painted by brush, I used one of the acrylic colours as the base coat/primer for. It worked really well. Might be worth a try for you. Humbrol or Revell acrylic, brushed on with maybe two coats. Leave it to harden for 24 hours, then you should be okay to paint enamel on top.

And the Dutch are known for their generally tall stature. The Gollumness seems to have got stuck after a bit of banter over in @Martian's vac-form tutorial thread. Paying work is going by the way today. The mood for it is not there. The frame bodge worked. Basically I hacked off the base of the triangle, then shortened the legs while - ooer! - spreading them a little. It’s stuck in now, and needs a dab of paint. I might get the canopy masked and stuck on. Wing root gaps were dealt with by first gluing styrene strip n them, followed by filler. I think the styrene helps to strengthen the joint as well, as there isn’t much actually holding the wing assembly in place.

I’m afraid I started later, around the time desktop publishing was getting into its stride. A few years ago I began to get Interested in movable typesetting, but never got beyond reading and watching videos about it. I went freelance about 20 years ago, but the crash of 2008 killed my already struggling business. Then I managed to sort of turn the railway modelling hobby into a business. I’ve still got the design hardware and software, but I’m very out of touch with it all now. Meanwhile, back on topic…

I think I’ll attempt adjusting the kit part by trimming off the base and then gluing it where it’s allegedly supposed to go. If that doesn’t work, Evergreen or brass rod bodged in. It’s hidden under the canopy, after all. I've just been surveying the next few stages. There’s a lot of nice PE grilles and things that don’t seem to be used anywhere. I’m glad I paid for those. The engine block is resin, with a myriad tiny push rods to glue on. The prop mounting is also a work of art, which really won’t work in real life. Anyway, haven’t I got some paying work to do?

How does that rhyme go? You know, the one about "for the want of a nail the shoe was lost"? Today, children, a lesson in why properly designed instructions are important. A pair of triangular pieces are fitted behind the pilot's seat, to form a roll cage I suppose. Can you work out where they fit? The smaller triangle seems to sit athwart* the cockpit sides, directly behind the seat. You can begin to see where this is going... Right at the beginning of construction there was no definitive location given for the seat. Then, no location for the floor. Two wrongs now mean the seat and floor are probably too far back, so the rollover cage doesn’t fit. It’s impossible now to retrace steps to undo things. We are, as the metaphor has it, up Cack Creek sans propulsive devices. See? The apexes (apexises? Who knows‽ It’s probably all Greek to me) don’t meet as expected. I’m going to have to busk a solution where the butt end of the larger triangle will be supported by molecules of oxygen and nitrogen. All because someone didn’t think to prepare better drawings and provide some location guides in the plastic. *You can have that word on me. Use it in your conversations today.

Careful now. You’re awakening my typography nerdism! (I was an erstwhile graphic designer for many years. Typophilia is a common affliction.)

I’ve got a couple of those tubes squirrelled away. I think they came from an Airfix gift set. My usual preference is Revell Contacta, the one with the metal tube to help you blob it in the right place as long as you don’t squeeze too hard.

It’s very similar, but the UK road signage uses a specially designed typeface called, surprisingly, "Transport". It was created by Jock Kinnear and Margaret Calvert, who also came up with the "modern" road signs we’ve now had since the 1960s. I must get my head round creating my own transfers. How’s the grotty transparency problem coming on?