Derek_B

That's come together nicely Steve!

A brilliant masking job on the red stripes! Beats fighting with decals! Nicely done.

Making great progress Adrian! Looks like very subtle surface detail on this kit.

Looking good. I seem to remember my father building one of these when I was ten or eleven, and at the time the only models I would build were military aircraft. I remember thinking it had too many windows. He also built a VC-10. He flew in both types on his regular overseas trips.

Looking great... I have memories of building one of these long ago, and struggling with the decals over the corrugations.

Wow Adrian, nice work on those little white dots!! Curious how that tiny detail changes the appearance so dramatically! I think the eyes have it!

enjoying watching this one come together... lovely work on the cockpit!

Since the undersides of the wings will be yellow with black stripes it's time to lose the silver undercoat. So after a light sand here's the pleasing finish with a blast of SMS Surfacer White from my cheapie Tamiya "Spray Work" airbrush... even from a cheap unit you can get much more control over the amount laid down compared with a rattle can. The wing tanks are pleasingly smooth, given they were made from three pieces. Sadly I managed to slightly misalign the underside of the fuselage halves when they were joined, so a little work is needed on the join seam. Some yellow coming soon!

I'm utilising the very basic interior from the kit... here it is glued into the starboard fuselage half. My goal is to get this completed, not a super-detailed exercise. It's pretty dark in there anyway. Some "suggestive" colours were added... And now the fuselage halves are joined! Started sanding along the join lines to see how much remediation will be required. While not perfect, the fit of this kit is pretty good. No yawning gaps anywhere, except maybe around the flaps where they meet the fuselage underside... we'll see. Also assembled and sanded the wing tanks and got some initial colour on the prop. The ejector-pin marks on the undersides of the ailerons have been filled and sanded, ready for some primer...

Next I masked up several areas so I could fill the trenches under the rear fuselage and the ejector-pin marks on the undersides of the ailerons. I always like to mask before filling, so I don't have to sand areas beyond the "problem area"... even on fuselage join seams. And after a filling with Tamiya filler and a bit of sanding and a shot of rattle-can silver, the lower rear fuselage sides are nice and smooth... Just some minor sanding and another shot of paint to get the texture even and I'm ready to move on...

Correct - same for the under-side of the starboard aileron. There are a few areas which will be receiving some filler, including these ejector pin marks and the huge trenches aft of the wings which are intended to house the arrestor hook arms. These are positioned too high on the fuselage and they're far too deep. In fact the aft end of the wing-to-fuselage fairing is shaped incorrectly, but I won't be correcting that - but the big trenches have to go...

That's looking great... particularly like that side view!

... and now I've re-scribed the main panel lines... pleased with that! Only one very small oopsie where I went a little too far. A few more to be added once everything is assembled and seams filled...

Hey, that's a great tip... I've just ordered a set of those Sutton harnesses for my various Wirraway projects (same seat, and same harness). The seat is looking great!

Watching with interest and nostalgia! I remember building one of these as a youngster in the 70s... had to save my pocket money for 3 weeks... an almost insurmountable goal at that time! I think I had the good newsagent put the model on "lay-by" so it wasn't sold before I had the money!