Fifer54

Way beyond my means! Disability benefits won't run to one of these!

What he said.

That looks like it's coming together very nicely!

Looking forward to seeing this when its done!

Does that look superb, or what?

Impressive! That weathering makes it gorgeously tatty-looking!

Looks good. Super weathering as well. I always admire modellers who can produce realistic weathering. I like to produce pristine planes myself, but each to his own. Maybe it's lack of experience with weathering that puts me off- maybe it's lack of confidence with the airbrush. :worthy:

Michael J F Bowyer in "Fighting Colours" (Patrick Stephens, 2nd Ed.1975) shows a picture on p.59 with a caption, " A famous Hurricane 'night-intuder' was Kuttelwascher's 'Night Reaper', LK-R (a Mk IIC) of 87 Sqn in special night finish, grey-green-black with what appears to be a shade of grey coding. Pictured when freshly painted, the serials are obliterated" The picture is credited to the IWM, and shows a Hurri IIC carrying underwing tanks(?), with NO sky band, and dark undersurfaces with a low demarcation line, with the pilot posing for the camera standing on the port wing with his hand resting on the windscreen. There is an indistinct personal marking below the cockpit. I don't know if this is the same aircraft, but the information in the caption may be helpful. Unfortunately no dates are given, and there seems to be no further mention of the aircraft in the text

Good work on all of those. That Valiant B2 sure looks mean, moody and magnificent!

Really nice build. Loved the underside weathering!

Very, very nice! :worthy:

Just got to comment on this GB. This is the first time I've taken part in a GB, and I'm enjoying it so much! The public nature of a GB, compared to the usually solitary and private experience of modelling, is refreshing and I'm really looking forward to future GBs. Thank you all, Britmodellers, for re-engaging me with modelling, and rekindling my interests. I'm quite moved, 'cause I hadn't realised how down I was, until this GB started. You'll all call me a big softie now!

Hola, amigos! Oops, sorry, that's the wrong GB! Anyway, I've made good progress today. Here is the fuselage. And upper and lower wings assembled That means............ Test fits! Big gaps at lower wing roots and at front & rear of the upper wing centre section. Igor, break out the Milliputski!! Having got to this stage, I'm now running around the room, holding the model at arms' length, making "Nneeeeeoooowww" noises! (really must control these urges!)

Yeah, they're brilliant. They are the fabled Berna Assemblers or "Berna clamps". Bought them a couple of years ago at SMW. <(oozes smugness and sips a wee dram.)>

Progress, comrades! Assembly of the glorious Tchaika fighter, which possesses 2 sets of wings where the capitalist lackeys of the Imperialist West make do with only one, is proceeding. Images obtained at great human cost by our secret camera show progress. Here is the pilot's office. And here it is fitted. A dry-brushed instrument panel. (Shows up better in the (original)pic than in the plastic!) Closed and clamped. It has now been "set aside to dry"! Adhesives by Revell Contacta. Paints by Revell and Humbrol, all enamels, applied with a hairy stick.

Good Progress there, Comrade! You will definitely be in line for being named a Stakhanovite!

The same photo, but slightly less cropped, is on p.118 of "Fighting Colours" by M J F Bowyer, but other than confirming the a/c is a Thunderbolt II, sheds no light on the codes and serial. Mr Bowyer does also list KL339 as GQ:B of 134 Sqn., if that tells anyone anything.

Leave the upper wing stripes on. In the immortal words of Al Superczynski (who I only knew through rec.models.scale) "Build what you want, the way you want it, and above all have fun!" Although someone also parodied this as "Build what you want, the way you want it......and the critics will flame you every time!!!"

I've just noticed in the sprue shot, the pilot appears to be Mickey Mouse!

Looking good! Your build appears to be progressing nicely. I'd heard horror stories about this being unbuildable- looks like they were wrong- or the storyteller was a kitbuilder of MY standard. Well done so far!!

I'll have a go! NA Sabre vs. MiG 15 sounds good to me! Or, really off the wall, Honduran F4U Corsair vs. Salvadoran F4U Corsair (1969 Soccer War)

I'll have a go.I'm sure I can find something suitable in the stash or on eBay.

Count me in, I'm sure I've got a Toko 1/72 Hansa-Brandemburg W29 Floatplane somewhere in the stash. I don't usually build planes that need rigging, but I'll have a go! Might try to find that Mk1 Tank as well.

Room for one more? I bought this SMER Polikarpov I-153 off eBay, thinking it was a repop of the Heller kit. I was quite surprised to find it wasn't! It's my first group build and I've not shown any of my builds here, so at least you might all get a laugh! I'm building SFTB in a winter camouflage, like this- Here are the kit's mug shots- Right, tovarischii! To work like Stakhanovites!

Room for one more? My latest acquisition from EBay arrived this morning and will suit this GB very well. So please include MadNurseGaz with a SMER 1/72 Polikarpov I-153 Tchaika. I'm a group build virgin, so please be gentle with me!