klr

Since I posted in support of this build back in January, my classic Heller stash has grown ... and grown. And may grow still further. Thanks of course to much of the back-catalogue that Heller still owns being reissued, and being readily available at reasonable (or better) prices. I now have 3 of the Noratlas 2501, thanks to a very generously priced double-kit reissue. Likewise, I have a second Canadair CL-215, with a stunning decal sheet. I'd like to build at least one of these two aircraft for the GB. I also now have a second Ju 52, a second Lansen, and a first ever Super Etendard (joining an Etendard IV in the stash). I also bought a Hellcat to replace the one I sold, but with a better decal sheet.

Visiting a model shop with stocks of Eduard and Heller kits qualifies as "an occasion of sin". Over the course of two days, I helped myself to this lot: The Nieuport 17 is a double kit, complete with etched parts and five subject options, all for an exceptionally good price. The Fw 190 A-5 includes options for both 2- and 4- cannon wings, which has been done by providing two full airframes (alas, not including the engine face or standard propeller). I can't think of a way to make up another kit from this largesse though. The Noratlas is another double kit, again for a price so good I just couldn't resist. I have one in the stash for over 30 years, but could never make up my mind between the various camouflage options. The Canadiar CL-215 I first bought the same time as my first Noratlas, but the minimalist decal sheet put me off, as well as painting yellow on yellow plastic. This rebox fixes that. The kit is now molded in grey plastic, and sports an enormous decal sheet (see below), which includes an option for a white and green aircraft based in Saskatchewan. So now I know what subject the yellow plastic will be used for. I foresee either the Noratlas or CL-215 being included in the Heller GB next year. Maybe even both, who knows? The Super Etendard might also be in the mix. I never bought this kit back in the day, preferring the Italeri/Academy kit instead. The consequence of this madness was a further clear-out of the stash, but that's another story.

Engine-y bits, mostly cleaned up: Inboard nacelles, mostly assembled: Unlike the inboard nacelles, the outboard nacelles are clearly "handed": The assembled cowlings definitely need more work: The front propellers can only be installed the correct way around, but it would be easy to mistakenly install the back propellers the same way around, and the instructions are not clear at all on this. Unless my eyes are deceiving me, one the rear propellers (top right here) has its blade contours the wrong way around.

😄By no stretch of the imagination would I call myself that. As often happens with such major kit releases, I find myself learning on the job.

Snap! I was just writing the same myself in response to the post about the D version.

The changes from the D to H series were extensive. The only PB4Y-1 we are likely to see from Airfix will be based on the B-24J (very likely just Ford-built). Likewise, the only RAF versions will be GR.VI and B.VI based on the H or J. I'm afraid if the Hasegawa or Academy D offerings don't cut it, then you may be waiting for a very long time.

The clear sprues are X and Z. Just how many versions are Airfix planning?

Tail planes built and attached: Upper starboard wing attached. You don't need to see the lower starboard wing, but it was another mess of clamps and clothes pegs: Fins and rudders added, so now the basic airframe is complete. The pin that held the nose wheel strut in place against the roof of the bay is broken, so I will have think of a workaround to fix that. That's all for today. I will probably work on the engines, nacelles and undercarriage next.

There is no shortcut to attaching these wings. One piece at a time, an upper wing first: After sanding and filing away the lower side of the spar for about 20 minutes, the lower wing finally fitted ... with a bit of assistance to keep it in place while the glue set: I will hopefully get the other wing attached today. However, I will attach the tail planes first, to serve as a guide to getting the wings lining up at the same angle.

Is the kit worth getting for the decal sheet I wonder?🤔 I see Italeri has plumped for RLM 84 instead of RLM 76 on two of the subjects.

There wasn't much to paint in the interior. I painted the main cabin back as far as where the central spar would go in. For such an old kit, the fuselage join was good. Actually, in my long experience, the age and provenance of a kit are rarely determining factors here. An old kit can be good, a new kit can be bad. The thickness of the plastic probably reduced the chances of any significant warping. At this point, I also attached the starboard bomb bay door, but not the port. A good join is not the same as a perfect one, and the trick will be to clean up the join without removing too much rivet detail. Actually, it seems that the row of rivets parallel to each side of the join are not depicted anyway. Although there are pictures of the radome extended while the aircraft is in the ground, I am going for the "traditional" retracted position. Even after cleaning up the join on the front and sides, some work remains. Dry-fitting suggests that the upper wings will fit snugly over the central spar with little or no adjustment (contrary to what I said above), but that the lower edge of the spar will need to be cut away significantly.

I have had a spreadsheet for over 30 years, initially populated with over 10 years of data that I had manually recorded, some of that initially from memory. It has gradually been modified and extended over time, but it will never be perfect, nor will I ever attempt to do too much with it. The ultimate solution would be to convert it into a fully relational database. Ironically, while I have all the skills and experience to do this (a major part of the day job), that same experience is also telling me that it probably wouldn't be worth it. I have a separate spreadsheet to manage my paints, which like the kits spreadsheet, has multiple ancillary sheets. I also have spreadsheets to track both my music and book/journal collections, and still another to record both my daily weight and steps count. Where would we be without the electronic spreadsheet?

So I've installed all the side windows on both sides of the fuselage, and the two lights under each wing. I then attached most of the basic interior, as well as the starboard bomb bay door: A closer look at the front shows that things don't line up quite as expected. There is a gap between the nose wheel bay roof and front bulkhead. I didn't want to leave this. Also, there is a gap between the back of the cockpit floor and the front of the bomb bay roof. In the spares, I found parts for building a carrier aircraft with the wings folded. The area is now much more rigid. The fact that the cockpit floor slopes up towards the back won't be apparent once it's all closed up. There is a single vertical spar that will go straight through the fuselage to make the wings more rigid. The first problem is that the bomb bay roof would not allow this, so I had to gouge a channel in the roof: So now the spar fits perfectly through the fuselage, but the wings won't fit perfectly over it. It's too tall, by c. 7mm. There is no way the upper wings can be modified to handle this, as this would involve cutting into the actual wing. I will have to lower the tops of the spar on both sides until such time as the upper wings align correctly with the upper wing root boundary. I may have to do likewise with the lower sides if the lower wings don't fit. Another option would be to omit the spar, but it's there for a good reason.

I have a number of tins of Humbrol 164, but I'd rather not use that. I almost always use it in conjunction with 163 Dark Green on RAF post-war subjects, so I have the same amount of both, and I'd like to keep it that way. Humbrol enamels are now difficult to get here in the EU (although not impossible ...). Revell sometime quotes 378 "neat" for Dark Sea Grey, and sometimes suggests a dash of something else be added. So for example both this kit and the "new" Revell MR.3 are just 378, but for the "new" AEW.2 kit, it's 10% black and 5% Lufthansa blue. For some other kits (e.g. 1/72 Hunters), mixes based on other colours are specified. I will very likely just use 378 "as is". I did buy an extra tin of 378 some months back in anticipation of building this kit. Then I got a whole box load of unwanted Revell enamels, which would otherwise have been thrown out. Included in this were 4 or 5 more tins of 378, so I'm not going to run short. Then again, I also have the "new" Revell MR.3, and the Airfix AEW.2, so I will be needing lots of Dark Sea Grey in the long run. Oddly enough, the closely packed rivets should make hand-painting easier that if there were relatively little surface detail. The downside is that there are some blemishes visible, especially on the wings. I will post a picture of some of these ASAP. It will be tricky to remove these without damaging or even destroying the rivet detail, but I'll see what can be done. One thing I probably won't do is try to weight the nose. No instructions on ballast are included with this kit. In the instructions for the "new" kit, 30 grammes is suggested as the ballast to be put in the compartment above the nose wheel bay, between the cockpit and the nose section. To be honest, even that doesn't look to be enough to me, given how far forward the main wheels are. So I will probably scratch-build a tail stand for it.

Bless me father, for I have sinned. In the last few weeks, I went nuts not once, but twice. The first time I was visiting family, and I didn't expect to find much in the model shop back home. Boy I was wrong, especially as practically the entire Heller catalogue appeared on the shop web site the day before I got there. The Do 27 is of course the Special Hobby kit from a few years ago, and includes markings for a camouflaged German aircraft. Ever since I saw the Do 27 in an aviation journal about 40 years ago, I have wanted to build a kit of it. The Ju 52 mold appears to be still in very good condition. The decal sheet in the Eduard Albatros D.V kit is jaw-dropping, especially for a mere "Weekend Edition". The Seahawk FGA.6 looks to be a very nice kit, and includes markings for a Suez aircraft. I sold a kit of the Heller Hellcat a few years ago, but sort of regretted it, and vowed I'd get another with the new decal sheet some time. The improved decal sheet in the T-28 is really very nice, but of course the USN subject can't be built from this tooling. I left several other kits on the shelf, but I may yet get them in another week or two. ... after that, I vowed to show restraint for a month or so. But I didn't back on a slew of Arma Hobby kits appearing out of the blue. I bought these six over two days. I now have 10 of both the Hurricanes (I, IIb and IIc) and Yak-1.