Uncle Monty

Hi all Another update from the interceptor production line. Progress has been slow because all the big bits have been made and now I'm into the details, so everything takes ages to do and quite often the end result doesn't look much different to when I started. However, thanks to strong tea and the occasional Mars Bar, work continues. Firstly, I decided to change the background story slightly; this is now a Royal Navy interceptor. I came across some photos of RN S2B Buccaneers in dark blue-grey, and I decided that this is the look I want for the model. In some ways it sort of resembles a Buccaneer anyway. I think Tamiya Gunship Grey would look pretty good and it would make a nice change from the usual off-white finish. I'll have to make my own decals using the laser printer and the water slide paper as I don't have anything even remotely close. Here's where I am at the moment. The cockpit has been detailed, with some extra curves around the 'glass' which hopefully suggest strengthening as per armoured glass. I've added some greeblies but not a lot, I think too much detailing would spoil the lines, it is quite a small ship. Here are the legs being assembled and glued onto the fuselage. Each leg is made of two styrene sheets (for strength) glued and then drilled with holes for extra decoration. The legs fit into U section channels made of styrene which will be glued onto the underside of the fuselage, at an angle (because of the fuselage curve) which will ensure the legs are splayed out away from the centre line. This was a nightmare, it took a long time with a lot of checking and tweaking as the glue dried to ensure that the legs are symmetrical in every way. This is where the modelling mat saved my bacon yet again. Keeping the legs square to the mat markings made everything much easier. You can also see the 4 cannons. These were made from thick sprue, cut and squared off. This was pushed into 4 x 1:35 bombs from an old aircraft kit. Each bomb was assembled, sanded smooth and then drilled out to make a big hole for the sprue to slide into. The result is a nice imitation of cannon fairings. These other assemblies are the attitude jets. Two jets point up, two down and one forward. These were made from suspension parts from a tank kit, no idea what tank it was. The model will have one assembly on each side of the fuselage and this will give the ship the ability to move pretty much any way it wants to. Well, that's it for now. Thanks for all the nice comments and likes, it means a lot! cheers Monty

Looks great, it has a hint of Joe 90's jet car, very cool

That's a good nose job. Watch out for the dust when sanding that filler, it gave me a sore throat a while back.

Hi @TallBlondJohn, re the book yes it's not cheap but IMO worth every penny. It has more than 300 pages with colour photos on almost every page and I can't see any problems with the print quality. Most of the photos are new to me and many are of aircraft, trucks and dioramas that he designed and built I guess just for fun. It's mostly about scratch building, so if that's your thing then it's worth taking a look.

Thanks @Hunter Rose, a man needs fuel to keep the brain cells ticking over I treated myself to a new tool for the workshop - a modelling rivet maker. When it arrives I'll have a play and see what it can do. Never used one before so unknown territory for me. I'm thinking that the sides of the fuselage might benefit from a few rivets.

Hi all Time for another update from the workshop. I spent a couple of evenings on the build, stopping only for tea and biscuits, and managed to make some progress. I spent most of the time on the cockpit, which looked worryingly like a bathtub until I put the roof on. Here it is, in what will be its final resting place. The radar housing on top is also not glued down at the moment, it needs a few hours of sanding and filling first, but you can see the rough shape of it. I use Humbrol model filler and it's always given me good results. Here's a closeup of Dave Bowman. The side rectangle holes were going to be glazed, but now I don't think that'll look right so I'll cover them up. The roof is going on. You can see the three supporting ribs. It took a while to cut the styrene 'glass', it's horrible stuff to work with. The ribs will need thickening with extra layers to give the glass something to rest on. Still not glued together but it gives an idea of where it's heading. The cockpit is now glazed, the side panels have been covered up, but still a lot of work to do on those ribs/window frames. Finally a quick view of the rear where a few more greeblies have been added to the engines. The silver rectangle underneath the copper is a strip of staples from the 'man drawer'. I thought they looked a bit like radiator fins, for cooling purposes,which would make sense on rocket engines. The white box was made from styrene panels. Overall it seems to be going where I wanted it to go. Thanks everyone for the comments and likes. Happy modelling! cheers Monty

Thanks @voozet, that's a good tip.

It's good to be your own critic, it helps to inspire you to do better next time. I'm not sure this build could have been any better than it already is, though.

I'm always amazed at the attention to detail on such small components. Even the tiny bolt heads are perfect.

Absolutely brilliant, what a cool project. The design is pure steam/diesel punk. Prob more diesel than steam. Either way, it works well as a unique design and the build quality is great.

Beautiful work on the figures, especially the standing-up guy. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result now after all this time and hard work.

It looks great, I'm loving how this is coming together. Nice big gun you there as well

Hi @Stickframe thanks for the comment. I'll post more pics in a day or two. I'm slotting in some me time in between gardening chores at the moment, sort of battening down the hatches before the last of the sunshine disappears. I'm glad you like the sketch, doodling away and letting my imagination go wild is all part of the fun for me. Back in the day I wrote a lot of technical reference material complete with illustrations and the habit is hard to shake off.

This is amazing stuff. You have a very talented eye for the details, I'll be watching with a lot of interest to see how this goes. BTW i have a "Domestos Power 5 toilet cube" in the upstairs loo. When the wife's not watching I might pinch it.

I love the way this is coming together. The paint and weathering makes it look real enough to jump off the desk. Nice work