Martian

Most impressive! Martian

I think I married her! Oops, don't let Mrs Martian see that! Tactful of Mars

This is a lovely little project and one that I have undertaken myself in the past. I have another Hi-Planes kit in the stash, along with their Pikka prototype kit. I also have the Alley Cat 1/48 kit and am therefore very interested in how your build pans out. Thanks also for the tip about the tip tanks, a certain betentacled Muppet of this parish spent many hours masking his off. That went straight into the "No Fun" category.! Martian

Not quite like that methinks! Martian

That's the ones. Don't be sorry about upsetting the "Bard" though. One of my favourite Blackadder scenes is in "Blackadder Goes Back and |Forth" where Baldrick's time machine lands him in the court of Elizabeth the First. He meets Shakespeare in a corridor and gives him a good knee in the unmentionables as payback for every schoolchild that has had to suffer his plays. Having had to study the plays in Martian, English and Vogon at school, I would have done far worse to him but then you can't have it all. Slightly off topic, this is coming along beautifully Hendie. Fortunately it is way too hot here to be venturing into the loft to dig out my kit and the spare vacform transparencies it still have for it so I am sort of keeping out of trouble: for now. Martian

You are spot on Bill, that's why we try and not to mention Macbeth very often. As to the McBeth version, I believe it has the same effect, only with a slightly delayed effect while Johnny does a double take at the spelling. He then reads it aloud to himself and then the effect kicks in. Helpful of Mars

@giemme, Like the actors in Blackadder, @The Spadgent is very superstitious and every time someone "inadvertently" mentions the word Macbeth (Oops, sorry Johnny!), he, like the actors, has to go through the "Hot potato, orchestra stalls, puck will make amends" thing, ending up by tweaking his nose very hard. For that reason we all try very hard not to mention Macbeth too much. However, when he gifts us such wonderful ammunition, as he did here, it would be incredibly rude of us not to fire it and I was always brought up to be a polite little Martian so what can one do? Martian

I think he hired the witches from that Scottish play..........I think it was called Macbeth. Martian

Thanks John, for the compliment that is, not the terrible pun. Cheers Bill. Displaying this one could be tricky when the spar torpedo is attached. Martian

Ah! So it was your nose that grew so long that it put some-ones eye out in Swanage High Street. All is explained. Enlightened of Mars

Now that the chap from Albion Alloys has taken the pictures he needs, I have got back on this build. I have painted the walls of the submarine white as we are sure that that was the colour used, because traces of the paint survived. I went for a black floor as I thought a darker colour would have been used as it would show dirt less easily. I used Deep Cockpit from the Lifecolour set of "black" paints. This set is really useful as one can get different tones which help bring out detail. I gave the deck a good dry brushing with Citadel Mythryl Silver, concentrating on the rivet heads, to indicate wear from the crew getting in and out of the vessel. Between its second sinking and the attack on the Housatonic, Lt Dixon and his crew completed a great many training missions so a fair bit of wear is appropriate here. I gave the rivets on the white parts of the hull a brown wash to hint at rust starting to form and the dry brushed white over the top of this to highlight the rives themselves. The crank itself was painted in Citadel Boltgun Metal and the supports for the same, were painted black. The crew's bench and the seat for the commander were then glued into place as was the tiller. Next up will be to get some primer on the remaining fittings for the inside of the boat and once these have been painted, we can start looking at getting the hull halves joined. I would like to say that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but, in reality, getting the interior finished just qualifies me for a shed load of extra work on the outside of the submarine. More specifically, a few hundred more of those £$&^$$*g rivets! Still, looking on the bright side, it will buy me some more time to decide on what colour I want to paint the exterior of the boat. Sources differ widely as to this, varying from black to a pale grey. I will most likely go with something close to the colour used in the Conrad Wise Chapman painting as he seems to have got pretty much all the other details of the Hunley correct. Time for some pictures methinks. Thanks for looking. Martian

Exactly like that! So it's still a regular feature of Perdu life then Bill? Martian

Not quite, I think he was suffering from the effects of this: Word is that he has never been the same since and is now trying to crowdfund a trip to The planet Psychosis Seven for a course of intensive therapy with Dr Gag Halfront. Martian

If I had had a Vogon Vindaloo and a load of CC's rocket fuel, it was extremely unwise, nay, dangerous of @Terry1954 to be stood directly behind me! Where were the "Elf and Safety police? Tummy Rumblings of Mars

I would definitely go for scribing, the foil would look overdone. Helpful of Mars