Johnson

Superb. Well done Sam! Charlie

Great project Adrian! Ah ha! I'm not the only one then! Charlie

Looks great Colin. You've got those pesky 'don't step on me' decals nicely bedded down which always seems a problem. Charlie

Thanks Dave, Martin & Colin! It's slow progress, not helped by my deciding to restore a 50 year old FROGasawa E.E. Lightning at the same time. But what really been a pain (literally) is that I've developed a very dodgy neck/shoulder. It limits my modelling time and typing on the PC... ouch! Better go. I'll be sticking some decals on this weekend! Charlie

'evening Froggers, The NMF is done. Alclad dark aluminium and jet exhaust added at the back. Nose ring - Mr Metal Color 'Chrome Silver'. Looks flat when sprayed on but can be buffed to a more or less chrome finish. Not quite as good as Alclad's chrome but it will do. Next task will be the matt black anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit which should be fairly straightforward. But I'm pondering the colour/finish for the gun port panels. A previous (and excellent!) build of XN793 had these as dark aluminium. But I'm not so sure. Looks to me as if they were painted black which gives them their very dark appearance. This photo shows that the paint was either badly applied or has worn off in places, look at the bottom right of the lower panel. Photo Macks Aviation Photography. Used with permission. Back soon! Charlie

Next up is to add some darker NMF panels. This photo from Ian Black's excellent book 'Lightning' gives a good view of XN793 from the port side. Photo used with permission. Some noteworthy features; The very rear panels enclosing the jet pipes are darker at the bottom. This is also visible in photos of the starboard side of XN793. Is this an affect of the light caused by the '8' shape of that part of the plane? Or were they really just darker? I'm assuming the latter. There are panel line breaks at just that point. But I may be wrong . Opinions would be much appreciated. The blue paint on the tail, spine and roundels is very dark, almost black above (but that's probably exacerbated by the contrast with the sky). It also appears pretty dark in other photos. But is is actually darker than the Roundel Blue BS381c 110 standard? No canopy! That would save a bit of work! I think I'll probably add it. Cheers, Charlie

Definitely good advice Pete! It will certainly get a few days to harden. Might try to stick a few decals on the Wessex later. Charlie

Really great Chris. Beautifully made and finished. Cheers, Charlie

Thanks! Better than I expected considering where this started. It's a difficult trick, getting a good NMF finish, certainly not one I've mastered. But, having grown up using Humbrol silver applied with a brush, I'm generally happy to accept the results I get with these spray-on metal finishes. Some slightly different shaded panels can help, and a bit of subtle weathering. Thank you @opus999. I plan to have the cockpit open so it had to be a bit better than my earlier efforts. I'd hoped to make more progress with the paint but seem to have acquired a case of modeller's neck! . Ah the joys of 'golden years'! Having to stay away from the bench for a while.

According to 'Aeroguide 3 BAe Sea Harrier FRS Mk 1', it's an oil vent. Same for the FA.2 I assume.

Thanks Jeff - You're on the list! 633 Sqn - absolutely! (If we survive the Bunfight!) Cheers, Charlie

Time for some aluminium paint. The Lightning F.2A I'm modelling is XN793 which was the 92 Sqn boss Wg Cdr Mitchell's plane. As such it would have been very well looked after. But the aluminium surface wasn't terribly shiny, typical of a well used lightning. All Lightnings look a bit different, some panels lighter, some darker. XN793 had a fairly uniform finish with a few darker panels. My old favourite is Alclad 2 Aluminium. No longer available to buy in UK (or Europe) it would seem. Why? Too noxious for current legislation? I also have AK Aluminium in the paint store. How do they compare? Alclad aluminium on my test mule. I wanted to see how it looked, and equally important, how it fared when masked and un-masked. Tamiya tape was left on for several hours. Unmasking didn't lift any paint at all. Tough stuff Alclad. AK aluminium (and AK polished aluminium): Removing the masking tape lifted the surface paint from the AK Aluminium. The polished aluminium fared better, but was still slightly damaged. So Alclad it is. Lightning back in the paint shop. Initial spraying the Alclad Aluminium, didn't go well. Splatter . Every airbrushers nightmare and gave a nasty spotty finish. I reckoned that spraying at the recommended 12-15 PSI was too low. I polished the splattered surface with Micromesh 4000 and resprayed at a higher 20 PSI. No splatter at all. I'm not saying Alclad were wrong in their recommendation, it's just that every airbrush and conditions are different. An acceptable finish . I'll leave it to cure for 24 hours before spaying the darker aluminium panels and the blue spine and fin. And the shiny polished stainless steel nose ring the Lightnings had. Another trip into the unknown! Cheers, Charlie

Looks really nice Jeff - well done! Outstanding stand too! Charlie

Interesting to learn about the Vickers / Browning Pete, very similar. And excellent progress. Very envious of your Meccano jig! We had some when I was young, whatever happened to it? Parents - huh! Charlie

Thanks Ant. It's a great combination. Thanks Jeff. Getting there slowly but 1:1 life is beginning to get in the way now that spring's arrived! Cheers, Charlie

Very good - amazing camo scheme!

The plastic looks excellent Peter. Looking forward to your build, and the floats will be a bonus. Cheers, Charlie

Very nice work with the FA.2 Bill. I'll get round to one someday. I got the Whirleybirds P1.B from Martin Blundell (Aircraftmodels on eBay). Looks very nice, I can send pics if you're interested. Martin told me that the P1.A should be out sometime, but might be a while - as Stuart @scautomoton said, The real P1.A WG763 has been moved from Manchester to the Boscome Down Aviation Collection which is not far from me, might have to pop along and view the real thing. The BDAC is a really great little museum, well worth a visit if you're over this side of the pond. Cheers, Charlie

First attempt at the cockpit. It just wasn't going to do . Smash moulded a new cockpit coaming Gun sight and radar tube added to the coaming. New instrument panel and side consoles. These are from the Sword Lightning F.1 / F.2, a nice kit which I will make (one day ) as an F.1, so I didn't need the F.2 i/p. The Sword PE parts are made by Eduard (I think) who as usual got the colour wrong. Repainted in Dark Admiralty Grey. Barracuda Mk.4 ejection seat . Scratched control column. Some bits and bobs and bobs behind the seat. I think it will look OK. My understanding is that F.2As either have Firestreak missiles or cannons, not both. But a very useful photo (found in Bill @Navy Bird Lightning build) showed that the F.2A I'm building XN793 did have low fuselage 30mm cannons, or the holes at least. Photo Macks Aviation Photography. Used with permission. So I had to drill the holes; And the pitot tube base added. I know, I know - there's no wheel well. You can only do so much in a restoration build. Charlie

Friends visiting from NZ have left for more adventures in Europe, so managed a bit of progress. The rotor head assembled. It's not super detailed, but the FROG people did a pretty good job of capturing its main salient details, and it went together well. Needs painting, Dark Admiralty Grey unless someone says different. Undercarriage assembled. The wheels are aftermarket Reskit parts, beautifully made. Steps and flotation tank added. The ball is Milliput, rolled by hand, needs a bit more detail and a warning triangle (if I can find one small enough in the decal stash). Rear u/c support has holes drilled. Not sure if the various metal grills were painted or not? The rear rotor mechanism is nowhere near as good as the main rotor head. Going to have to think about it and decide whether it's worth modifying, and if I can. It looks a bit complicated for 1/72! The exhausts drilled out. Engine grill on the front added. Windscreen placed to check fit. You may notice the missing bit. Very thin plastic that didn't survive the masking/painting. I'll have to add a bit there. The roof has a central panel (which won't be very visible). Charlie

Thanks @S-boat 55 - you're added. Hi Roland, Thanks for your offer to co-host. That would be fantastic if the dates work for you, and it gets through the Bunfight. Looks like we're in the bunfight! An interesting question Dave. Possibly @Dave Swindell might be able to help? He's very knowledgeable about the Mosquito and helped me enormously during my recent Mk.XVIII build. Cheers, Charlie

The decals, and the whole model, look absolutely great Pete. That really was a very nice looking aircraft. Charlie

Was this something to with the bits of splintered prop flying around? Not good to be in the vicinity.

Certainly worth a try Pete. They're in register which is good. Old FROG decals have been OK for me. Cheers, Charlie

Haven't looked in for ages Mike, so a catch-up for me. Fantastic progress! Decals look very good. The VC10 has great memories for me. My younger days watching it come in over SW London to land at Heathrow. Then much later flying in RAF VC10s from Brize Norton to Washington on MOD business. Sitting backwards which was strange when taking off. They kept the aircon turned up (or something) to protect the airframe and when it came in to land you'd get a shower of water from above. Every time it landed at Washington Dulles airport the MOD got fined $5,000 due to the excessive noise level. Being RAF the cockpit was open and you could go up front and (if allowed) spend time in the cockpit. If there was a spare seat some even got sit in the cockpit when it landed. Never happened to me, I was too old, not good looking enough and the wrong gender! Cheers, Charlie