desmojen

Awesome job Neil! What else did you take with you for a nice relaxing build??? Jen.

How about superglue? As long as you've got halfway decent wood it should work out ok, and you won't have to wait for two days to find out! Jen.

I think you might be thinking of jointing compound, the type you use when doing metal repairs? I can't remember the number either, but it does stink. The stuff on the fin is just a PRC type sealant to stop the weather getting in. Jen.

That would be sealant Wayne. Jen.

I notice an ACT set there, you listening Karl? Jen.

That is just the best box art ever isn't it! Jen.

Many apologies for not noticing that other thread John Mike, I don't there's a lot wrong with the Airfix kit that a bit of elbow grease can't sort. It suffers from the usual Airfix ailments - the surface detail is very heavy handed, the detail on the other hand is fairly non existent. Oh, and it fits where it touches. Give it a damn good sanding and a bit of detail on the undercarriage and in the cockpit, replace the weapons with decent ones and you're laughing. Jen.

What about creating a list of kits that are available, and maybe accessories too, for those of us who may not have aquired a Jag yet? The ones I know of are, In 1/48, Airfix GR1 and GR3. Esci did a GR1 too. In 1/72, GR1 by Airfix, Hasegawa, Tamiya, Frog and presumably Italeri. T models by Italeri. So what is the Tamiya kit, their own mould or the Italeri one? Which one is best? Accessories wise, what can you get in 1/72? Jen.

I can't make it work Honestly, I'm such a bloody biff! Jen.

I wasn't going to join this, having just sold my only Jag. But then I accidentally bought an Italeri T.2 in Hobbycraft just now. So I'm in! Colour scheme to be decided........... Jen.

I wouldn't bother using gloss either. It doesn't seem to me to cover as well as matt does, and takes a lot longer to through dry as well. If you want gloss white I'd recommend using Halfords type aerosols, or do what I do and put Klear on top of matt white (XF2). Jen.

Hi Bob, It does stick well, but not quite as well as that of which you speak I remove it by lifting a corner with the edge of a scalpel blade, and then peeling it off with tweezers. Whether or not I dip canopies in Klear is decided by how I intend to attach it to the model, and whether it needs it for clarity. In this case I did dip it first. Jen.

Thanks for the heads up Kagemusha, but this build is to be OOB so no moddings allowed I've done a bit more since the last update but have been guilty of working on a Harrier shaped intruder this week! Both engines are now done, and the majority of the smaller assemblies are at least glued together, some of them are sanded too. I have to finish sanding the rear half of the fuselage around the tailcone before I can trap the engines inside and glue the two fuselage parts together. Hopefully the joint will be something like.... Jen.

I got a chuck off e bay for mine. Cost me about £8 and holds even my teeny tiny drill bits. I find it a lot easier than buggering about with collets! Jen.

Well ok. To start off, they have a team of lads (none of them are very old) who collect reference material. This ranges from stuff they find on the internet, through books, plans, photos and even other kits of the same subject. From all of this, they create 3D drawings on computers which they then forward to the next department. Here, more young lads start to break the drawings into parts. They can remove and reassemble all these parts, add locating pins etc and swivel everything around as much as they want until they're happy with the parts breakdown. The drawings they end up with can be sent directly to the CNC machines, but just to be sure, they make masters by hand and use a 3D scanner on these. All the info is put together and the results are fed into a cnc machine. For the detail parts, there is yet another team of young lads who actually handbuild small parts. I saw them making bits for tanks and interior parts for an upcoming large scale Jaguar kit. These are entered into the system by the 3D scanner. The CNC machine cuts mould masters from all this info. The mould masters look the same as the kit parts eventually will, and are made of brassy material. These masters are fitted to special machines which use them to spark erode the solid steel moulds. This process is extraordinarily long and drawn out. They were making the 1/32 F-100 moulds when I was there and the boss explained that each sprue mould for a kit that size can take as much as four days to produce. So that's four days for one half of one sprue mould! How many sprues are there in the F-100 kit? Once the moulds are cut, they are sent through and test shots are made. They use these to check for flaws and flash where the moulds don't fit correctly. If any are found they are sanded and polished by hand until they fit properly. They had just invested 1 million dollars in a polishing machine which they use for doing transparency moulds, until then they had been done by hand as well. Once all that is done they can set up the injection machines and do a run of mouldings. They do have a limited number of moulding machines, so they tend to do short runs of things as and when they need to rather than tying up the whole production line to do just one kit. From there, the bins full of sprues go up to the packing line where they are all bagged and boxed to be sent out. Hope that helps! Jen.

Well, I can tell you how a Trumpeter kit is made........ Jen.

28 looks and no-one see's fit to comment!? I think the scratch built one looks nicer than the resin one Len, nice work! Jen.

I've just started on a GR1 in 1/24th and I'm struggling badly for reference material. I have the new Sea Harrier datafile which is some help as the airframes are apparently similar. I've also joined the Harrier Sig and Nick Greenall is helping me out. You can't have too many references though eh! Yes, current RAF. Airframes engineer on Hercs, riding a ZX10R on racetracks only Jen.

Has anyone got any nice walkround style pics of the East Forune GR1? Jen.

Yes, very much! I like the Heller one best, I've always liked the Heller kit and I'm always slightly mystified by the bashing it seems to get in some quarters. The Revell one looks promising, but I still prefer the Heller one. I once built an Italeri and absolutely hated it, I thought it was a dreadful kit. Yes it is nicely detailed, but looks far less like a Spitfire (to my eyes) than the ancient Airfix MkV kit does. This little set just goes to confirm my belief that the old Airfix MkI and MkVb kits are probably still the best 1/72 Spitfires out there. Nice one BAC! Jen.

Nice work John! Why do UK museums insist on exhibiting in near darkness? Jen.

Phwoar!! Jen.

I love the shape too. I've never really been into Russian stuff, but this one just screams Flash Gordon at me! I challenge anyone to build this kit and not fly it around the model room at least a few times Sorry to disappoint everyone (and myself to an extent) but the finish is going to be plain old Russian NMF. I've never done NMF on this scale before, and I feel it should be quite a challenge to get a believable finish. I do like some of the camo finishes around though I have to say. Palace, I generally use BMF for my canopies because I find it easier, and it tends to lift less easily. I mostly fit at least the windscreen at quite an early stage compared to most modellers. This leads to a lot of handling and I've found BMF stands up to it better. It also gives a better edge, but don't get me wrong, I use Tamiya tape too sometimes Jen.

Bloody 'ell Bob, calm down! Thanks everyone, some very encouraging feedback there! Latest progress, I've finished sorting the seams on the forward fuselage, it's had its first coat of primer and that has been rubbed down. I've now added the windscreen too. Before adding it I sprayed it from the inside with Tamiya smoke, since the photos I have show tinted canopies and I thought it would be interesting to see how it looked. After that was dry, the whole thing was dipped in Klear to add clarity. Once dry, I used superglue to fix it in place. I then masked it with Bare Metal Foil as I normally do, and masked the whole cockpit area off to stop any more dust etc. from getting in there. The first engine is now finished. I didn't add all the piping that is supplied, you really won't see it when the engine is installed and the instructions aren't awfully clear as to where it's all supposed to go! Here's how it looks now. I've also been continuing with other sub assemblies. You can see the wheel bay in the background there. I've prepped the wings for joining later today, and glued the tailplanes together. I've also added all the panels that I want closed, so the right hand engine access panel has been fixed in place and then sanded flush. So far the fit of the kit has been really good with the exception of that nosecone section. More soon, Jen.

I'm pretty keen on it tbh, and lets face it, at least you know it'll be good! Jen.