Heather Kay

You may be lucky later in this thread, then. The G-1 undercarriage "repair" may well entail brass wrangling and a hot iron. Happy with the tailplane fiddling, I committed to gluing it to the fuselage. I also attached the nose glazing using Kristal Klear. The reason for not permanently fixing it is because I haven’t fitted the Big Gun framework inside, but I don’t want it in place now because it’ll be broken during handling. A temporary nose job will let me get painting done, hopefully. I hope that’s on square! Anyway, I’ll let that harden before I get stuck in with filler. Not sure there’ll be much more progress today. I’m feeling very lazy, and I’ll be back at the day job tomorrow.

I know. Scary. I don’t claim to be an expert, unless some years of practical experience count, and there are loads of people who are much, much better than me. I’ll have a think about the best way to share techniques, and where in the forum would be best to post it. Don't, though, hold your breath!

Right, now, where was I? Oh, hello everyone! The day job has been filling my time of late, and I’ve not felt much like styrene bothering after a full day slaving over a hot soldering iron. The moulding issue on the G-1 undercarriage leg has been exercising the brain box. I think I may have to rebuild the entire lower part of the main oleo structure in order to make a strong repair. More on that when I’m feeling strong enough. Meanwhile, back at the T.V… I got a bit miffed at my bodgery, especially round the tail unit. More in a sec, because to sort the issue out I stretched some sprue which also came in handy for plugging the little gap at the front of the cockpit canopy. Here, I am waiting for the liquid cement to harden off before trimming back the whiskers. Round the rear end, we have this shaped slot, design to accommodate the horizontal tailplane surfaces. Obviously, the slot isn’t quite the right shape, so a bit of careful filing and sanding needs to be done to make the best fit. The tailplane halves are of typical short run style, being very chunky round the trailing edges. I never seem to be able to scrape enough away to get a knife-edge finish, and ended up so disappointed in my efforts it all got put back in the box and dumped on the Shelf of Doom until today. I set to with big files and sanding sticks to see if I could thin the trailing edge from the outside. It got better, but still nowhere near good enough. In the end I used the stretched sprue to fill the gap. Here it all is after some preliminary sanding. Still some work to do, I think, but at least it’s not a lumpen edge any more. Here is how the tailplane is supposed to fit. You can see there will need to be quite a bit of filler and smoothing to do. All of this needs to be fitted before the glazed tail cone can be fitted. With the circular end to the fuselage, doesn’t it look like an early jet tailpipe! More fettling and fitting to come before I’m happy with things, but I can’t think of a better way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

An understandable situation, Jamie. No point making stuff that doesn't sell. So, I thought I'd better top up on my French Air Force - and some has already sold out! I've just bought what's available, and hoping what I have left is enough for the build programme. I really don't want to start trying to find alternatives. I'm getting too old for that game!

Superglue and brass wire pins, I think.

I think the kit originally dates back to the early 1960s, so it is pretty basic compared to what we have these days. I remember building one as a kid in the 1970s, and wasn’t easy then.

You know, I think this is now my favourite build of this whole thing. If anything, it shows what Matchbox were trying to do with their multi-coloured kits. In this case, they chose colours that more or less worked, and the transfers just make it right. Thanks for building this one, literally out of the box, Tony.

Ah, that’s better. Ced's back, and the world begins to feel right again.

No legend. Operation Banquet. My favourite part of that Wiki entry is:

The old girl has scrubbed up nicely. I’ve got an original black plastic one in the stash, and I hope mine turns out as well as yours.

I would. All that backlighting and reflection from the desk will be what Mr Olympus was seeing, I’m afraid. Oh, and splendid buzziness. Very, very splendid indeed.

Oh, I definitely enjoy a well thought out kit interior. It’s when I get bogged down with lots of fiddly stuff and cease to enjoy the process I get a bit fed up with the whole thing.

It is that. It is logical, though. Everything pretty much fits where it’s meant to, with one or two parts just needing a tiny bit of help here and there. While I applaud the inclusion of so much detail, when a good three-quarters or more of it will never be seen again I wonder if it’s worth the effort. It’s one of those kits where the journey of construction is as much a part of it as the finished model. Yesterday I was a bit out of sorts. Today, domestic life came first. With the kitchen and bathroom now clean again, I sat down and contemplated the next steps of the build. Undercarriage. Each one has 12 plastic parts. A pair of PE side walls need to be fitted, plus another styrene part, and that’s not counting the main wheels. It looks fiddly - again! - and is, particularly cleaning up the parts, but it does fit together with patience. The only major hiccup is a short shot stub axle, visible on the right hand unit. That’s a bother, but I think I can bodge round it. The instructions think this lot should be light grey. The IPMS Dutch web site disagrees, saying the wheel bays and undercarriage was painted the same dark brown as the rest of the underside of the plane. To do that, I’m likely to need the spray booth set up, and that’s not likely to happen for a while. So, I’m afraid construction will halt on the T.V and G-1 while paying work takes precedence once more.

I have used them, but I used their own thinners. Apparently, it’s just a concoction of water and isopropyl alcohol. In theory, you could used distilled water in its own, with a drop of IPA to break surface tension or something. I have no experience of Tamiya thinners, so can’t comment on whether it’ll work with Xtracrylix. I painted my Whitley with Xtracrylix. I found it was okay, but liable to lifting with tape. Whether that was down to poor surface prep on my part, or being a bit enthusiastic, I don’t know. Like all acrylics I’ve found they tend to be a little prone to damage, where good old enamels can take all kinds of abuse once dried properly. I’ve now switched allegiance to ColourCoats.

Exactly. I leave things alone, walk away and do something else, and come back and have another go. One thing I can tell you is that Oramask is bulletproof. I’ve been sanding - carefully - around it, but it takes all kinds of punishment where the yellow tape will have been shredded. I’m not pushing my luck, though, and still have the recovery plan on standby. Since my post this morning, the canopy glazing has been fitted and masked, the nose installed, and just now the tail cone was glued on. There’s a machine gun in there for the rear gunner to play with. I’ve been trying to understand how the cone worked, as it’s the same design as fitted to the T.V. Essentially, it’s an aerodynamic tail, but it has slim glazed door panels that open to allow the gun to fire through. I think I saw a photo inside a T.V tail where the doors weren’t aligned to the centre, so I have a notion the whole cone can be rotated, in the manner of the gun cupola on the nose of a Heinkel He111. Everything is now fitted and masked, so I can set too with the grey paint again and fettle the upper panels some more. Back in the thread I was pointed to a Dutch IPMS review of this kit, and it had some helpful colour information. I have painted the inside of the bomb bay the dark brown used on the underside (and top side, as it happens) before gluing the doors in place. I think the glue will have hardened, so time for another coat of grey to see how things look.