Dunny

Thanks very much Mark - the airport has got much better over the years - was it a connecting flight, or an airport meeting?

Thanks CC - always a Chimay ready for you! Cheers, Roger

Looking lovely! I also use XF86 as my 'go to' flat coat - it never fails! Great to see this moving towards a great finish, Cheers, Roger

Alistair, Love the underside oil staining on the Spit, and the V1 is also looking very smart! Cheers, Roger

Thanks Andy - it was a lovely slow-motion flight, and a horrible crunch at the end! Noooooooo...

Thanks very much Alistair - the dog learned a few new words... Cheers, Roger

Hi All, Some progress on the Sunderland today (I had the day off - yay for me!) Now I had the engines under control, I decided to finish off the interior. First job of the day was inserting the portholes, which required a degree of patience but passed without incident. Here's the bow section, complete with sea anchors: You can see that I painted both the anchors in neutral grey for a bit of contrast (it seemed a suitably anchory shade ), and heavily dry-brushed both with red-brown to simulate corrosion. I did briefly toy with attaching rope to the windlass, but decided that it would not be visible anyway! Next the midships section - here's the gunners' platform in position: I decided to attach the two Vickers guns in position (probably not accurate, but never mind!). Here they are: There's that many small loose parts precariously attached, if this thing doesn't rattle by the time I'm done I shall mange mon chapeau (as Uncle Marcel used to say). Finally the time came for buttoning up the fuselage, which went.... very smoothly? That is, until the entire assembly flew out of my hands and hit the wooden floor It could've been much worse - the bomb room roof came loose along with a few fiddly bits, so I pulled the still-wet glued fuselage halves apart and fixed up all the damage. Second time round got us here: Fit and alignment is good, and there are minimal seams to clean up, with just a small gap to fill at the underside near the nose - I'll take that as a win! Not too much to show for what has been a busy day - probably no more action for the weekend, as we're off to stay with a friend by the beach (along with voting in the General Election, kids sport & sleepovers, and other assorted domestic bliss!) Thanks for looking, Roger

John, Crikey - a good save on both counts! For what it's worth I think the doghouse is an improvement on the original and well worth the effort, Cheers, Roger

Some lovely paintwork on display there John - simple but very effective! Cheers, Roger

Chris, Lovely work on the 'surprise' Martlet! I still astonishes me the subtley of dinish you manage to achieve with a brush - superb! Cheers, Roger

Coming along nicely Alistair - the wear on the wing roots has come out well! Cheers, Roger

Lovely work Mark. All this talk of craftsmanship reminds me of the time at RR training college where the apprentals made a scale brass model of the Whittle engine for Sir Frank's 90th birthday. Impressive work it was (1990 I reckon), Cheers, Roger

Pip, I recently completed a Mk.Vb in EDSG/DE over Azure, and I chose to only show the lines on the DE portions, thinking that restoring the lines would not be a priority in theatre, Cheers, Roger

Cheers Mark! It does feel like things come together quickly when all the elements are complete... They are fiddly Alistair, and I did find that a little trimming of the cylinder heads was necessary to ensure a snug fit. Thanks Chris - I'm just glad I don't have to paint the d*amned things!

Chris, The Martlet looks marvellous mate - look forward to seeing that in RFI! The big beastie is also progressing nicely! Cheers, Roger

Thanks Chris, Very much enjoying this so far. As with my other heavy builds the small projects come together at the end. Has yours arrived yet? Cheers, Roger

Hi All, Some good progress on the Sunderland today! I've been umming and arring all week about the bombs after @dogsbody pointed out that they should have a red nose stripe, when I chanced upon this in a dark corner of t'internet: Look ma - no stripe! I'll leave them be, but may pick out the nose detail a little more. Today was engine day (as opposed to leg day ). I decided to do these as another pleasing 'mini-project' which will get me another step towards the finish line. First job was assembly of the cowlings (usual SH fare - no location tabs). One was also either damaged, or a short shot: For whatever reason there is a fifth cowling included on the sprue, so that was substituted, and no-one will ever know! Next up was the now well-established Dunny Bristol treatment, albeit applied to the mighty Perseus this time around. First a base coat of steel, including to the lovely resin exhausts: I then masked the front of the exhaust collector with liquid mask as this was not subject to the discolouration caused by hot exhaust gases. A mix of steel & brass was then applied to the rear section of the collector (forgot to take a photo), and then heavily thinned brown was applied, which got us here: The exhausts were only blutac'd in place - these were then removed so the cowlings could be masked to spray some Coastal Command loveliness. Here's before: Appalling photo - sorry! In between White, DSG and EDSG I got on with the propellers and engines: And here's the final result of a day's work: Pretty happy with those! I realised after the fact that I haven't unmasked the front section, which I'll do another time. Very happy with progress to date though - I'm very much enjoying this build, which is not always easy to say with SH kits! Thanks for looking, Roger

Nothing worse than a misplaced mm . Nice work on the canopy Mark, and a stylish recovery from the cockpit mishap! Cheers, Roger

Alistair, That's looking lovely - your hard work has certainly paid off! I presume you're going to marble this one too? Cheers, Roger

Lovely build and finish Andy - love the extra detail on the engine, Cheers, Roger

Nice work Alistair - and a fancy looking jig too. Do you mind if I ask where it's from? Cheers, Roger

Andy, Good luck with this - that sure is a basic interior! Cheers, Roger

Thanks for the kind words Stephen - much appreciated!

A very visible detail John and I've see @bigbadbadge use the Brengun components to great effect. Coming along nicely, Cheers, Roger

Looking good Alistair - I do like your marbling (must give it a go one of these days), Cheers, Roger