Natter

Ditto, but at the time my GPZ900R (why did I sell it?) was only £3950 OTR. I have only ever seen one of these in the flesh, at the 2019 Chateau Impney Hill Climb event. Utterly gorgeous. Beautifully modelled, and even though the base kit is brilliant on its own the photo-etch really lifts it.

Ye olde Scout done justice. Top job.

More proof (were it needed) that all the old Airfix kits need is a sympathetic modeller and a decent paint job. This one has found both - what a corker.

Ooooooh - nifty 'practice' model. To be honest Matt, having seen the results of your car model builds you'll find the Panigale or Black Shadow an absolute breeze.

Mig-tastic.

Get a bigger shed. If you make the others look like that it'll be worth all the effort, coz that's a belting model.

Good morning All, firstly a thank you to Jockney for allowing me to join the GB with this entry; the Airfix 1/72 Fairey Rotodyne. The history of the aircraft and its eventual cancellation are fairly typical of the British aviation industry of the late fifties and early sixties, but I won't dwell on that here. The Airfix mould originates from 1959 with all that entails including rivets everywhere, big sinkmarks, approximate fit of parts and moveable control surfaces and undercarriage. It has no cabin interior and a brief thought about trying to scratch a representation of the instrumented interior of the prototype was quickly snuffed out; I lack the skills and patience. So, what of the kit? I picked up the Airfix Rotodyne and the Revell kit as part of a bundle a few years ago for not a lot of cash. The Revell kit mould dates from 1961 and has far more detail including removeable panels and a complete interior, in the slightly odd scale of 1/78. I have the 1996 reissue of the Airfix kit and the 2009 reissue of the Revell kit. TheAairfix kit has no box and came in a ziplock plastic bag, though is complete and has decals and instructions. Side by side there is a noticeable difference in size, but the Revell kit had plenty of its own rivets. I quite like Revell's boxing of other makers' models such as Matchbox and Hasegawa, but their own kits that I have experience of always seem to have loads of flash, poor fit and warped parts. This one is no different, and is moulded in the good old fashioned favoourite of silver plastic. I may try my hand with the Revell kit, but I will start in with the Airfix offering first. I am not sure how this was stored in its plastic bag, maybe in the sunshine somewhere, but the model's grey plastic has gone a not very fetching beige in places. Fortunately it has not gone brittle. The rivets will respnd well to a gentle sanding, but the sink marks that festoon the surface will require a little more work. First job. On the upper surface of the wings is an intake, which in the original was the intake for the compressors that provided the high pressure air to the rotor tip 'jets' to spin the blades for take off and landing. I set about thinning these with a dremel and a judicious scraping with a scalpel. This made quite a difference to their appearance. 20200708-TE intake by Dave Farrow, on Flickr I am back to Mike Grant's tips from his 'Circuits and Bumps' series back in 2011 for this next one for making blanking pieces or bulkheads. He used plasticene to make a plug inside a fuselage, then stuck it all in the freezer to harden a bit. Once properly cold and quite stiff the plug was removed and sliced with a scalpel. The sliced section was placed face down on to a piece of plasticard and paint sprayed around the edge to give a 'positive' of the shape, which could then be carefully cut out and filed/sanded to match the interior of the section to be filled. My plugs for the main undercarriage bays weren't perfect, but they made making blanking plates really easy. I hadn't really thought about it until I started to put this together, but it's a big ole unit. Rotor span if the prototype was in the region of 90 feet (27m for you modernists), which might not mean much until you have something to compare it to. Next to the same scale Mi-24 Hind-D, which is no small beast itself, gives some appreciation of how big it really was. I have also remodelled the rotor mast so the rotor is both free to move and removeable and will add a photo or two in the next progress post.

I have been sitting on one of these in the stash for years, so I am really looking forward to seeing you build this one. Lots of pics please!

I love the photo with the lady on her own by the aircraft; almost Jack Vettriano-esque

I am, as usual, seriously jealous of your brush painting skills. The 'tide mark' is just right too.

Mobility scooter jousting and Caravan and Camping modelling themes. Only on 'Brit'modeller! Excellent 'gizmology'.

Super model. It is worth taking the time to drill out the disc brakes, but choose your moments when you are calm and relaxed - definitely not when you are being 'challenged' by the decals! Cracking paint job, no one would know you had such difficulties looking at that finish.

They may have had their reliability issues, but by crikey they were gorgeous cars. Another model given 'Matt's special touch' to make it look great.

Absolutely nuts. Love it.

I have done a couple of aircraft in Irish markings and have used Tamiya Orange X-6) and Humbrol Emerald Green (gloss No.2) which seem to look about 'right'. The Walrus can be found at the link below if you want to have a quick check to see if it would suit the Lysander if you choose to paint the stripes.