hovis

Just my tuppence worth but the vulcan I'm nearly finished is the first model I've seriously decided to rescribe. Yes, I made a few wee mistakes but this must be one of the easiest models to rescribe I reckon, large flattish areas with many many straight lines. I wasn't going to rescribe but ad mentioned if you sand off the raised lines you lose where they go, so I decided on a slight rescribe. I was well chuffed with the results which gave me more confidence qith the rest of the beast. Go for it, practice your skills.

Very nice indeed.

Really beautiful.

You're making it look easy Muzz. Nice looking kit though, looks well thought out.

So you're that fella that called the polis....

Excellent work mate!

Great stuff. Interested to see the spine fix as I'll be taking notes!

First lick of paint on the build, the interior and cockpit. I'm just brushing this on as I'm fitting the pilots, due to the cr@p seats, and the canopy has to be closed, as Airfix provided only the glazed part of the canopy, the frame being moulded on to the body of the plane. So anyway, paint colours were from some of Merv's previous posts to others, black floor on the GR4 as opposed to the dark green on the earlier versions, but he does suggest fine black sandpaper instead of paint for larger scale Tonkas if anyone's interested! The grey was a mix and match, again according to an old post of Merv's. He also mentions the addition of old crisp packets etc, but at this scale I'll overlook this. Not a great pic, I know.... The back seat joystick was replaced by another piece of sprue, shaped and stuck to the floor. I know it should be part of the control panel, but Airfix has you glue these to the upper fuselage before assembly (see above). The next pic shows it clearer. Should be an improvement. The seat is only set there for now, not permanently attached. Biggles and Ginger start getting dressed up... And the joystick gets added to the front. You can also see on the above pic another of Merv's pet peeves, the exhaust duct below the wing gloves, just in front of the tailwings. Very few Tornado models have this, but I agree with Merv, it needs to be there. Drill a hole, file it square and in my case here, I blocked off the inside with a piece of scrap black plastic. Second coat of paint on the cockpit. And while that's drying, I decided to look at the fuel tanks. Airfix provide only the 1500 Litre tanks, two of, but no provision for the 2250 litre tanks used commonly by GR Tonkas since Gulf War 1. I'm not going to mention the "H" word, as Merv really hated it. the early 1500 litre tanks had 4 fins at the rear, 2 on top, 2 beneath, but they found they were stable with just the lower 2 fins, so on my tanks, I filled in the grooves for the top fins. ILS aerials added to tailfin...

Timothy in his prime.

Back to the cockpit, and a bit of work on the side controls. They need extended a touch, so I cut off some squareish sprue of similar size... And stuck them on the ends to extend them. A bit of sanding to size.... And it looks far better to me! At this time however I have really bad news. Timothy, my modelling companion for many, many months has passed away. Looks like, suicide. He was found hanged. Let's take a moment to remember Timothy.

OK long overdue an update.... I know I know! Next job was the sorry excuse that is the Skyshadow pod. The kit effort is a wee bit bare to say the least, and the rear fins is a known cause for depression. I didn't take too many pics of it, but this is basically what you have... The roots of the fins are terribly terribly thick. Again, not a great pic but... You can sort of see the thickness on the left fin compared to the sanded right one. Anyway, sanding the top of the fins, as the fin itself does not join the body at the halfway point where the two halves join together, but actually lower. This next pic shows what it should look like, picture from the collection Merv gave me.... You can see the rear fins are lower down. So, quick sanding as said, and it's a wee bit better.

Excellent work there mate!

Looks good to me!

All raised lines apart from the new weapons sprue Charlie. I don't mind so much at this scale though, I'm going to try a technique merv told be about on this build. And on that bombshell I'll say goodnight!

I'm thinking polyfilla Charlie! And one of those rotary cement mixers.

Nice choice. I have two of these, one partly built I test techniques on and a second I'm afraid to start!

Good start. Looks a nice kit.

Usual sprue shot And also... Progress starts with the cockpit, if you can call it that!!! Just like the Vulcan for example, this id a very old kit, given a new set of decals and a sprue of modern weapons so quality is rather lacking. The kit itself is based on the twin stick trainer from waaayyyy back at the start of the Tornado's life. I won't be doing too much with the cockpit as it won't really be seen, and for self-speeding up purposes, but I will not be making the back seater have a joystick like the pilot. I'll try to rig something more correct looking. Anyhoo Yes, that's the cockpit. I know. Old style Hawk Mk10 seats and dainty little side blocks for the throttles and shiz. A closer look at the seats and "blocks"... I can't accept those seats. I just can't, sorry. No, really, just no. So a wee bit of Milliput to the seat headboxes and.... Starting to look loads better. More work to do but I'll let these dry first. Wings put together, with gaps.... And tail fin, again with a big gap... And weight added to the nose. More soon!

So, yes, I posted that before I had finished. You must realise I'm a bit rubbish with all this computer stuff. Apologies also for the quality of the photos, I'm just using my phone in my shed to keep track of progress. More to follow shortly........

OK folks, this one is going to be built straight from the box, any changes are going to be constructed rather than bought. That way I may actually finish sometime this year! You all know what comes first......

Yeah Dave, he loved his "Wobbley"

And a Queen fan as well!

I think he spent most of his time on 17 Sqn given the fact he wore a lot of pin badges and polo shirts with the crest on, although he did spend time on 9 Sqn as mentioned too. He also spent time on detachments in the Gulf War and in the Falklands

I'm not one to usually take part in group builds as I work really slow and hate the pressure, but count me in this one as it's for Merv. It will probably be the 1/72 dambusters special scheme.

I was lucky enough to have befriended Merv for the last few years of his life. I knew of him on here but first met him at the animal sanctuary he was volunteering at. He had a soft spot for the feral cats, whom the centre manager didn't have much time for, and he got me and the wife involved too in the ferals, just to pee the manager off! He treated them like his own though, he had a very loving heart for cats. I was also with him the day he was diagnosed with leukaemia. The wife sorted him out with his benefits, as he had been living in near poverty when we met him. The extra money at least gave him a bit of comfort towards the end of his life as it meant he could feed and heat Daisy without worry. One thing I am particularly glad to have done though is help him find his Mum's grave. We used to drive a van loaded with dogs from NI to Kenilworth in Warwickshire to the Dogs Trust there. These were dogs who would have been destroyed here but fulfilled the demand for pets in England. Merv made many of these trips, and with a vanload of 20 dogs on average, he saved hundreds of dogs in his time. Anyway, on one of these trips he said he wanted to try to find his Mum's grave in a cemetry in Solihul, where he was originally from. Armed only with a 20 year old photo, I managed to work out where it was for him. I'm good like that I'm just glad he found it, it was his last trip with the dogs, just before the leukaemia. The wife and I drove him to and from hospital and looked after Daisy when he had to stay in. To show how big hearted he was, he even cried in front of us when he thought of leaving Daisy for a few days in hospital. He beat the leukaemia the first time, but unfortunately it came back stronger. I'm just happy to have been a friend even for such a short period. He was one of the good guys, the type who dies far too young. RIP mate.