Jump to content

Heather Kay

Gold Member
  • Posts

    3,909
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    33

Everything posted by Heather Kay

  1. I’ve retired to my place in the country.
  2. I interpret these as black paint frames that have been painted inside the Perspex panels by ground crew. I think it’s a way to create a blackout effect, perhaps reducing the amount of internal lighting that could escape. There’s no obvious pattern to them, and they’re very roughly painted. It’s a feature I noted from many photos in the Wingleader book on the Stirlings MkI and MkIII, but I decided to ignore it in favour of simple blackout curtains inside the fuselage.
  3. That’s an excellent idea. I don’t plan to make a MkIII, as I don’t think there were many in service during the year. I have done a conversion of the Frog MkIII to a MkII, though. I recall doing many of the same modifications you made to the fuselage. I also recall having an absolute nightmare with the canopy! There’s a theme developing! Heres the MkII in the Frog Squad GB gallery.
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Montrose#Second_World_War That’s just confusing. I think I’ll leave it until I can verify one way or t'other.
  5. Eep. I was following what the Wikipedia said. I shall stand corrected.
  6. Miles M.9 Master MkI N7576/F N7576 was part of the station flight at RAF Tern Hill, Shropshire, in September 1939. The aircraft was then operated by No 8 Flying Training School, RAF Montrose, Forfarshire, in the spring of 1940. As the RAF began to take delivery of its first high speed monoplane fighters in the mid-1930s it became clear a trainer would be needed that provided similar performance characteristics. FG Miles designed a low-wing monoplane trainer around the 745hp Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI inline engine, as used in the Hawker Fury and Hart biplanes. The new trainer, of exceptionally clean design, was named Kestrel after the engine. Miles presented the design to the Air Ministry, but it was initially rejected. Miles pressed on with the design as a private venture. The Kestrel first flew in June 1937, and proved to have a top speed about 20mph slower than the brand new Hawker Hurricane – which had an engine of higher power! Eventually, circumstances meant the Air Ministry turned to Miles for the new design. A specification was drawn up for a development of the Kestrel, to be named the M.9 Master. The £2 million contract was, at the time, the largest ever awarded by the Air Ministry for a training aircraft. Numerous changes were made to the design, including the fitting of a derated Kestrel engine, meaning the Master MkI was some 70mph slower than the original Kestrel design. Nevertheless, it was still the best training aircraft of its day, and featured handling characteristics similar to those of the Hurricane and Spitfire. The Master was of wooden construction, covered with plywood. The rear cockpit was the instructor’s position, and featured a seat that could be raised to give a better view ahead over the trainee pilot in the front. A hinged panel was interconnected with the seat-raising mechanism to provide a windscreen for the instructor. A number of MkIs were converted to a single-seat configuration and equipped with six 0.303in Browning machine guns during the summer of 1940. Intended for use in dire emergency the M.24 Modified Masters, however, were never used in anger. Production numbers of the various Master types are interesting. Some 900 MkIs were ordered. MkII production totalled 1,748, and the MkIII came to 602. The Pavla kit, being a short-run production, threw several curve balls at me. I added some extra little details around the nose, opened the belly radiator flap, added wingtip navigation and landing lights, and titivated the cockpit areas to better match the real thing as seen in various photos. The vacuum formed canopy had been slightly squashed at some point in its two-decade-odd shelf life, and I managed to completely ruin it in my attempts to correct it. The model then sat on the Shelf of Doom, waiting for a bright idea of how to fix such a problem as spare parts for a kit long out of production. An expensive solution appeared in the form of another unbuilt Pavla kit, so I could at least finish what I’d started. I’m not sure what to do with another Master kit, so it lives in the stash for now. Perhaps I could make an M.24... The propeller and exhausts came from the Bits Box – probably a scrapped Magna MkI. I made brass rod replacements for the undercarriage retraction struts. The original transfers had suffered over the years and fell apart on contact with water. I scanned the spare copy, and drew stencils so I could paint the main national markings, and make my own serial numbers and code letters. The model is painted with Precision Trainer Yellow enamel, then brush painted with Humbrol and Revell acrylics for the camouflage. The WIP thread, intermingled with a build of an Avro Tutor, can be found here:
  7. Add me! Add me! Sadly, I may have cleared my Bomber Command stash by the time a potential GB comes round, but you have my name to push the proposal over the line. I suppose I could find another one to build, though.
  8. If you are definitely set on acrylics, then my go-to for RAF Dark Green is Revell Aqua 68. It brushes really nicely with the hairy stick, but I’ve never tried thinning for airbrushing.
  9. Yup. However, when you’re working on a model that’s about the size of your thumb taking macro photos will obviously reveal things not normally visible to a typical human bean. Sometimes we fret over the tiniest details, forgetting they’ll never be noticed when we step back to normal viewing distances. I have lost count of the times I have faffed about with cockpit details - heck, even O gauge railway carriage interiors! - only for them NEVER to be seen again when the model was complete!
  10. Chuck, I wish it were true. Tis done, for what it’s worth. (About tuppence, frankly.) There’s nothing left to attach, nothing left to paint - except some exhaust stain, perhaps - and all that is left is to organise some beauty shots for the family album. I think that’ll be sometime in the week. I’m going to need a while to recover after this perisher! I will post a link to RFI when it happens.
  11. Jeepers, this thing is fighting me! Good enough. I'll let those dry properly. Varnish to fix things and tone everything down. Then, with luck, I will get to fitting the undercarriage, exhausts, propeller, and sigh of relief as it’s put right at the back of the cabinet. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: when will we get a state-of-the-art 1/72nd scale Master? It must be due soon, surely.
  12. Sadly, it was short-lived. The serial and code transfers are shot. They either crack on contact with water, or fall apart when being positioned. So, I’m off to my pooter to draw something up and print my own. Later!
  13. I am definitely going to finish this model this weekend. Smothered in masking tape, part way through painting the markings. This is the "I really hope the paint doesn’t lift when I remove this lot" stage. I’ll take that. A couple of retouches needed here and there, but I’ll take that. The code letter and serial number - assuming the transfers are okay - will be waterslide. Too much fiddle'n'faff to sort out masks for them. I shall leave it alone for the paint to harden. Happy, so far.
  14. I do have it in the stash. It’s lined up to be built alongside a Lysander at some point this year.
  15. I’m going to finish this model this weekend. To that end, I’ve been fiddling some more. Having cut the washi sheet with a view to airbrushing the markings, I wondered if I could do the black serials under the wings by brush-painting instead. The large masks were transferred, without much complaint, to the model, and I burnished the edges to seal things. I carefully applied Revell Aqua matt black. Not bad. A little tidying required, but I’m happy with that. I brushed matt white on the fin ready for the flash colours. Now I’ve applied the national marking masks. The washi works well, but Oramask vinyl has the advantage that it’s possible to see what you’re sticking it to. I’ll add more masking to hopefully avoid overspray, and get the white, red and blue airbrushed tomorrow. Like I said, I want this model finished and off the bench. It’s getting to the point where I’m utterly fed up with seeing it! Now, when will Dora shrink their 1/48th Master for us?
  16. I like your technique for the black paint. I've been trying to work out how I could replicate the worn and scabby Special Night finish, and I think you’ve cracked it.
  17. Thank you, everyone, for the kind comments!
  18. I have been fiddling about with the Master. Odds and ends. Paintwork seems okay. I’ve removed all the masking for the canopy. I figured I would probably be brush painting any varnish. Spraying markings with stencils I can roughly cover the clear parts. Ah, yes, the clear parts… As the tape came off, all kinds of muck was inside the canopy. It took a while, but I realised what it was. Blutack residue. I failed to properly clean the inside after having forced blutack in to support while masking. Hey, kids! Remember to clean things properly after using blutack. It does look pretty bad from this angle, but from normal viewing distances it’s okay. I’m not going to attempt to remove the canopy now, so mucky it must remain. *sigh* Another faux pas. Some time ago I had - I thought - carefully followed the instructions in assembling the main undercarriage legs. I had a bit of a dry fitting session. Something didn’t look right. It dawned on me I’d got the legs reversed. Of course, I’d glued part of the leg covers on, and they were the wrong way round. Ever so carefully I tried to extract them. One leg snapped at the point where the axle is. This could be a problem, as the model has to stand on its wheels. The weakest point had given out. I cleaned it all up, carefully drilled through and into both halves 0.5mm, and glued brass wire in. All good. Let’s try the wheels. What? How come the covers are lower than the wheels? Stupid past me had glued the main covers on too low. More careful prising, some careful tidying. This time I glued the wheels on the stub axles first, making as sure as I could they were aligned properly, then reglued the covers. The remaining short covers will be fitted once the gear is on the model. I won’t be able to fit them on the wrong way round then. Oh, wait. Maybe I will. I spent a while fretting about how to align the undercarriage to give the characteristic splay. The location points are vague and probably wrong. I was wondering about making a support jig to hold the main oleo/wheel assembly aligned while glue set when I remembered there are sets of retraction struts to fit. They’ll automatically align things - I hope. So, a couple of steps forward, a pratfall backwards, and crawling on hands and knees to get more or less back where I started! Still to fiddle with, setting the Silhouette to cut scale 8in serial numbers neatly.
  19. Good to know, Colin. thanks. I’ve got eight Frenchies to work through, and if I run out of CC colours I’d be a bit stuck! I’m very tempted to go brush-painted with the acrylics. I’m not keen on adding another kind of paint and thinner to my collection! With that, I guess we should hand the thread back to Adrian!
  20. No need to apologise. I don’t know if CC enamels for French aircraft are any more correct than others. I started working out suitable Humbrol acrylics, based on the Heller colour call-outs, when I began looking at French planes, but so many of the range were out of production or had been deleted I got fed up.
  21. Ah, so this circled icon and checkbox is the thing. According to the user manual: Which I take to mean it won't have any effect on curved cuts. That's the issue I was having. The tiny circle in the centre of the numeral 6 was being picked up by the blade. The overcut setting won't affect that, I don't think. Some further tests required, I guess.
  22. I had a look, but couldn’t find anything that quite matched your description. I’m using the "pro" version of the Silhouette software, and I noticed the UI is quite different from the PDF user manual. I think I’d like to compare notes with you. I’ll do some screen caps of the control settings.
×
×
  • Create New...