Richard Cawsey

With glider models, I find the most important thing is to get the dihedral angle on the wings just right. Otherwise, with such long wings any error is magnified and it ends up looking all wrong. . .

Looks good. It's not too late to go for the yellow option. . .

This is the first car kit I have made in over 40 years, and certainly the most complicated, but a very enjoyable build. The fit of the parts is mostly very good. The moulded detail at the front of the gearbox is the wrong way round. The three stub shafts protruding from the gearbox should be on the starboard side. The raised detail was sliced off and transposed and the three shafts replaced by some slightly more realistic ones. Many of the chromed parts appear too bright and may be better stripped and repainted. Using oven-cleaner, the chrome is very persistent and at least 24 hours is needed to dissolve it. Some parts were just lightly sanded to reduce the shine. The rear-view mirror was much too thick, and had an ejector-pin circle right in the middle of it, so I sanded it down and used the reverse side as the reflecting surface. . . The tubing provided for the magneto leads is much too thick. 15-amp fuse wire was used instead. The same tubing is also intended for some random spaghetti in the area between the instrument panel and firewall which is otherwise an empty space. Slightly-more accurate detailing was added instead, as well as some pipes from the fuel tank, though of course not much can be seen when the body is on. The chassis number plate decal has a transparent background, so it has to be applied onto a brass-painted (or better-still real brass) rectangle. There is a raised rectangular area for this moulded into the firewall but it was the wrong shape and was sanded off. The locking wire between the screws on the body is 5-amp fuse wire. The body was sprayed from a can of Tamiya French blue (TS-10) Markings are based on Louis Chiron's car, one of the two kit options, but I didn't like the red-and-white stripes on the bonnet, so it has been backdated to a slightly earlier period before the stripes were applied.

Nice one, Centurion. Like it.

Very nicely done (much better than my attempt); the launching pad is fiddly to get right but it looks spot-on. One possible improvement is to sharpen the nose-cone to a point - the kit seems to be moulded with a blunt bobble on the nose for the benefit of younger modellers. The great thing about the model is that it takes up very little space on the shelf. . .

I started on the Airfix kit but found the fit of the parts was so bad that I gave up and bought the Tamiya version instead. The Airfix kit didn't entirely go to waste though; I used a section of the fuselage to repair the toilet-roll holder in my bathroom.

A quick and easy method is to get a lump of partially-solidified pollyfilla and rub it across the panel lines. Then brush off any excess before it dries. This will reduce the appearance of the lines without obscuring them completely.

At least Italeri have corrected the duck-tail on the MFH kit. . .

I found it useful to print off the original Accurate Miniatures instructions as the process is described step by step. They can be downloaded here: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/accurate-miniatures-480202-sb2u-3-vindicator--138192

Pukka Wokka. . .

1/48 Eduard (mostly) Brokker glider, 1922: I have had the Eduard Bristol Fighter kit (weekend edition) for some time, but was always put off starting it by the complexity of the rigging. The obvious solution was to get an Eduard Fokker D.VII and combine the two kits. The Brokker was built for the Daily Mail gliding competition held at Itford in Sussex from 16 - 21 October 1922. Entered by Sqn Ldr A Gray and Fg Off W S Buchanan from RAF Northolt, it was a late arrival, only appearing on the final day of the contest. As it was hastily assembled, it became apparent that it consisted of the wing of a Fokker D.VII attached to a Bristol Fighter fuselage, and it was thus christened "Brokker". Most of the experts treated it as a joke and said it would be uncontrollable, and they were not disappointed when on its first launch the wheeled undercarriage was catapulted down the slope while the glider itself flopped heavily onto its belly. The next attempt was much more successful and Sqn Ldr Alec Gray joined Alexis Maneyrol who had already been soaring his Peyret tandem monoplane on the ridge for two hours. The Brokker now seemed to be the most controllable machine present, but after an hour it was getting dark, and both gliders were forced to land by the light of car headlamps. The Daily Mail prize of £1,000 was won by Maneyrol, who had set a duration record of 3 hours 22 minutes, but Gray and Buchanan received a prize of £50 for their efforts. The Brokker was taken to the Central Flying School at Upavon where it underwent testing until a fatal accident occured on 28.8.23. There are only a few poor-quality photos of the glider, and no accurate drawings, presumably because the machine arrived late at the contest and by the time its qualities had been recognised it was dark. As a result some of the details are conjectural. The tailplane looks too small for a Bristol Fighter, and the wrong shape for a Fokker, but the dimensions of the S.E.5A tailplane (later style with narrow-chord elevators) look right. I didn't have a spare S.E.5A kit handy so cut the Bristol tailplane to shape. The ailerons were enlarged by combining bits from both kits. The nose fairing was made from parts cut from the lid of a tub of butter substitute.

You complain about the deep panel lines, and then you deliberately accentuate them even further with dark washes. I don't understand. . .

I don't know why the photos should work for some people and not for others. Just in case anyone is interested, these are the direct links. . . http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/DSC08424.jpg http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/DSC08426.jpg

A Korean War vignette in 1/72 scale. (With apologies to Roy Lichtenstein.) Sea Fury is an Airfix boxing of the PM kit; MiG-15 also from Airfix. I was doing a Trumpeter Sea Fury at the same time, which made use of the propeller and decals from the Airfix kit, plus some minor surgery in a number of areas where the kit is inaccurate. . .