CliffB

US Marine Corps AV8A. 1/100 Takara kit built OOB and painted mostly using Tamiya acrylics. The build thread is here (the contents of which explain why some of the decals are missing ). Cheers Cliff

Thanks Rob (assuming that schmick is good ). Well here it is 99% finished. The 1% that's missing is the 'Marines' decal from the starboard wing. I found the decals to be very hard work. To start with, they take ages to come off the paper and then the carrier film is very thick and prone to silvering. Worse still, they are printed slightly out of register, so that anything that isn't pure black has a white 'ghost' to one side. I over-painted this ghosting on the 'stars n' bars' , but left them untouched on the Ace of Spades and ejector warning triangles (where they weren't so noticeable). The ghosting was so bad on the top-of-fuselage red lineage, that I decided it was better to leave it off. The missing Marines decal was fine, I just placed it too far back (in line with the kit's instructions I should add), and so it looked really weird. The only way to get it off was to destroy it. Normally, printing off a replacement would be no problem, but as I'm moving house shortly, my clear decal film is packed away . I will get it sorted out though, once the moving dust has settled. It's nice to get this one finished, so thanks to all involved with the GB for making in happen. I now know much more about Harriers than I did before, mainly thanks to Giorgio's encyclopaedic knowledge! Cheers Cliff

Scrolling through the Gallery, I pulled up sharp at this one. What a stunner

Thanks Wes and Giorgio. With my 1/100 builds, I try not to add too many refinements. I like the fact that there is only a limited choice of kits available and virtually no AM stuff. So not a lot of thought required - just trust to the kit's manufacturer and build OOB. In fact, this is pretty much how my relationship was with Airfix when I was a lad - which is probably why I'm enjoying it again now! Having said that, I've just noticed that while the kit's drop tanks have fins, those fitted to AV8As do not. An easy fix (even now they're painted), so I think I'll do it. In addition to painting the dielectric panels, I'm also going to paint the top four auxiliary air intakes black, in a crude attempt to represent them open (they're moulded closed on the kit). Hopefully I'll get the decals on tomorrow too .

I appreciate that for many folks there are more GBs than modelling time available, but I'm struggling to see why this is an argument to reduce the number of GBs. It's not compulsory to participate in every GB (or is it? ). If one's only got time to participate in 8 GBs per year (for example), surely it's better to be able to pick from a choice of 16 rather than be presented with a deliberately restricted choice of 8. I understand that spreading the participant pool over a wider number of GBs may lead to head counts falling in some GBs, but in practice that doesn't seem to have caused any problems this year. Also, maximising the number of GBs broadens the range of subjects available and so should potentially open up the GB scene to a wider audience, thereby increasing the total size of the participant pool. For sure, there will be an upper limit on the number of GBs that Enzo can sensibly manage (and we may already have reached that limit), but let's not artificially restrict the number just to make it easier for individuals to achieve a 100% participation record. All the above is just my personal view and is offered purely because these things are being discussed. The reality is, I really enjoy whatever time I can spend in GBs and will continue to do so regardless of how they are set up Cheers Cliff

The name 'Starfix' seems to invoke a mixture of laughter and derision when mentioned on this forum. I've got a couple in my stash - both are Heller re-pops

Thanks Giorgio. The more I look at photographs of AVA8s, the more details I notice. I think it's time to stop looking and just get the model finished

Thanks Col. I've just come across some painting instructions (I think from an Airfix kit), which indicates Olive Drab. That ties in with some of the photos, so I'll go with that! Fingers crossed I'll be finished by the deadline. We're moving house in a couple of weeks time, so there are plenty of other distractions at the moment.

Me too please. Many in my stash, including a couple of Caravelles - one 1/100 scale and several 1/200 versions. Which to build?

A quick update and also a question please. Here's the update. and here's my question.... From internet photos of USMC AV8As I can see that the tip of the tail fin, and also a panel on its leading edge, are not finished in the camo colours. In some pictures they appear to be metallic, whilst in others they seem to be painted dark grey or even green. Can anyone put me straight as to their correct colour please? Many thanks. Cheers Cliff

Enzo, I think it's 10 without FROG. D Day Trainers Specialists Year of Birth Front line Asia 50s NATO Film etc. Float planes II Shark mouths Lockheed

Enzo's proposal sounds good for this year. I count 10 proposed GBs marked +++ though (plus FROG), not 9. Is that right? Luckily there were no more, otherwise I'd have had to have taken my socks off.

I'm still on board too please.

Thanks Giorgio and Col. I'm going to keep this one relatively clean - I'll save the weaponry for when I build the GR3 option As for Kim, well he/she is destined for the second kit that I have. I got that one cheap because it was missing the Area 88 goodies. By keeping Kim etc. I still have a complete kit (should I ever come to sell again).... Cheers Cliff

Thanks Jabba - will do.