mitchem

Stop before it's too late Matt ! There's no cure mike

Basic paint scheme applied : Gloss coat on the weekend before tidying up the paintwork and applying decals.

Brave mine for trying to resuscitate this one Mike.

Really unusual choice there John I'm feeling a sudden need to do a bit of background research on Free French forces in the Central African Republic. mike

I know where you're coming from as my projects usually run aground with the end bits. Can't wait to see the end product but don't want to put you under any undue pressure. mike

Hello ?......... Any update on this ? I’m getting withdrawal symptoms

Don’t tell anyone about the 737 build......it will be our secret

"It's the seats what's done me head in !" I've attached the wingbox / main undercarriage bay to the fuselage and the joints have been blended in. Fit was better than expected with just a bit of filler on the forward joint. I also took the opportunity to remove the nosewheel door sections from the fuselage, as I'm not planning on trying to add the nosewheel bay near the end of the build. Flipping the fuselage over, I attended to the seam on the top I didn't bother with the white bit at the end of the fuselage as this will be covered when I add the tail. I'm keeping a close eye on the top joint as I'm not to sure if my efforts to exorcise the ghost seam have been wholly successful. Once everything had completely dried, I fitted my seat strips into the fuselage, adjusted the height at the front and then glued them to the top of the wheel bay with two part epoxy. Turned on the cabin lights and checked the seating through the windows from the outside: More than happy with the result, but now I'm thinking I should have made 120 Air Zimbabwe headrest covers ? At least that see-through look has gone. Looking towards the next steps, I've had a quick gander at the engines components. BPK have supplied brass sheet which needs to be rolled up to make exhausts, but I've chickened out and ordered some brass tubing instead, Having said that, I probably need to build the nosewheel bay and add that to the fuselage before gluing on the nose section. You guys must be sick of seeing the same photos? Watch this space....

Back again. Had a bit of an issue while fitting the canopy (but it was all of my own making! ). Anyway, I've covered the mess with masking and I'm hoping that no-one notices. Subsequently painted the black sections of the scheme and pre-shaded the model while I was at it: The black sections were masked off and I've applied the first layer of PRU blue to the bottom surfaces. I'll apply the second coat tomorrow. Once dry, I'll mask these off before applying Dark Sea Grey to the top.

What a combination ! Thanks for sharing. mike

Apologies for not having thanked everyone for their kind comments sooner. Much appreciated. mike

Cracking job Tony

I feel the pain Mike because I’m sure I’ve binned more models than I’ve ever completed. Would loved to have seen this finished, but stuff happens. mike

Crikey Ray. Lots of lumps. bumps and sticky-out things on that ! My carpet monster would have been able to retire on the offerings if I'd been building one of those . Congratulations on getting it over the finishing line. mike

Fantastic job Ian, but the mods may put you on the naughty step for saying something rude... Two thumbs up for the model, the paintjob and the vignette by the way mike (Looking forward to the Zvezda kit !)

Don't know how on earth I managed to miss this? Glad I caught it as it's spectacular to say the least mike

Sitting up and paying close attention Matt. Useful reference if I ever manage to graduate from 737. mike

Gold ?! That does deserves a diamond ! Absolutely stunning

List of weapons carried by the F1AZ can be found on the right hand side of this page (including 1000lb bombs and 400kg bombs) : http://www.saairforce.co.za/the-airforce/aircraft/33/mirage-f1az Each weapon has its own link. so if you click on the links, you can get a bit more info. mike

Excellent ! Thanks for sharing mike

My wife said I spend too much time procrastinating so she suggested I do some chores around the house today. I can always count on her to help me make decisions, so I opted to make the dummy seats instead. After my false start with the seats, I decided that mass production was the only way to get this monkey off my back. Plastic sheet measured out and scribed : Then it was a simple case of snapping the seats off along the scribed lines : Round the corners off on the headrests before folding them a bit with tweezers. Glue them onto base strips at a slight angle and presto : Paint half of them (because we're in a rush to test-drive them) : Slot both rows into the fuselage and have a look through the windows : I think it would be fair to say that it looks more like a passenger jet now ? mike

I know the feeling! Photoetch and very runny superglue - hate them both with a passion Excellent progress on the model nevertheless

I wish he'd stop trying to sell the thing off - I may still need it for spares when I mess this up ! (I still feel bad that he bought it after seeing my kit at the club,,,,,,,,,) Thanks to everyone for the support. I must admit that the seating problem is doing my head in and I'm still not too sure whether to finish off the dummy seats or just leave them out altogether. Final decision will be made by the end of the day. In an effort to keep the build moving along, I assembled the main undercarriage bay. Here are the components before everything got boxed in and disappeared from view : I suppose I could have gone overboard by throwing a heap of lead wire in but I'm having enough trouble with the passenger seats as it is . By the way, if anyone is looking for an excellent reference, I can thoroughly recommend "Boeing 737 - The world's jetliner" by Captain Dan Dornseif. As an added bonus, he has included some of his builds of 737 models at the end of the book - including one covering the very same BPK kit. (....and that's how I know that the orange and black bar running across the rear bulkhead represents the flap drive shafts) mike

Looking good Tony. It's not an easy kit to build so you've done a cracking job to get this far.

Excellent ! My favourite BA scheme by far.