Ray S

Hello all. Thanks Warren for the link, and MickE for your kind comments. Over the last couple of days I have concentrated on some of the more repetitious bits. First off, the main guns. These had a pair of smaller guns on top of each turret. Zvezda had made a good stab at representing them in plastic, but WEM supplied some fine etched embellishments. This meant trimming some deatil off the kit bits, then three etched parts were fitted onto the remainder. There were lots of 'sprue'gates to trim off the etch, so all in all they took a lot of time and eye strain. I ended up doing them two by two, so to speak, and still have one to complete. The first pair drove me to distraction. I found it really difficult to get the parts in place and fix with CA. Having finally managed, I glued them to the turret top, with the idea of painting them in situ. Next afternoon, I realised where I had gone wrong yesterday - this time I used Glu'N'Glaze to pre-attached the etch to the kit parts, then ran a bead of CA to fully secure them. SO much better. I then remembered that this was the way I had built most of the others that have been fitted, but oh! so long ago. I have also added a hatch at the rear of the turret tops, and still need to add a couple of sticky up bits (they look like aerials but nothing I have states what they are), but will draw the line at any other details. I have also been getting on with the ships boats, there is plenty of etch for them too, but they look too messy to divulge just at the moment as they need a bit of TLC. I don't think there are enough of these 12lb-ders supplied, I need two more for the final turret, and 5 (two forward and three aft) for the main deck, but only have five left on the sprues. Looks like I will be raiding the spare kit soon! (again). Thanks for looking, all the best, Ray

Hi Roy, my choice: Tamiya, 1/12 Morris Oxford from around 1965/66, so much better than the Austin Cambridge! Cheers, Ray

Hello Stew, looking forward to this too. Now a silly question (possibly). Are those paints okay for brush painting or just airbrushing? I am looking for a decent acrylic system too, mainly for the quick drying (and the pong-reduced thing too), and had a bash with the limited Revell range which I found brushes ok, my good lady wifey has just bought me some Humbrol acrylics for Valentine's day (was a pressie that is - she must love me!) so I hope they will do. I don't have an airbrush and rely on the hairy stick. The Peewit masks look the bees knees as well. All the best, Ray

Mr Foxy sir, I had been checking on this ship for quite a long time, right up until you had the problems posting the pictures. I was overjoyed a couple of days ago when I found you had resolved that, and were back in business here. It has taken some reading to catch up, but oh boy was it worth while! You are doing a stunning job on this ship, and giving us a masterclass in how to do it. Thanks for getting back to us, and sorry I was late in rejoining the party! All the best, Ray

Hello Warren, wonderful work so far. There is some great etch detailing with this, and that wood deck looks fab. I bet it was not easy getting all those strips on properly...if any were out of alignment it would stick out like a sore thumb. No signs of any skew-whiff though.Top notch work. All the best for your recovery. Cheers, Ray

Hello all, and thanks for your comments. Warren, do you have a link to your Dreadnought build? It would be good to see it. I am glad I was not the only one to think the G-Factor props were a waste. I have read that sometimes aftermarket stuff is a direct copy of the original but in a different medium. Not saying that is the case here mind, but... Anyway, today I tackled one of the sections where being an octopus would be an advantage. Sadly, being human, I struggled a bit. The area in question was the aft searchlight platform. I had added the railings yesterday, and today needed to thread two plastic parts through a pair of holes, angle them so they meet at a point on the upright mast, and angle them so they locate into a pair of holes on the deck. Meanwhile they are flapping about, and the railings were waiting to get mangled. Half an hour later, I had this... Oh yes, the angled parts also had a vertical coaling arm (I think) that needed to be set correctly too. I ended up dabbing a touch of glue onto the base of the mainmast legs, got them set so they were vertical and the coaling derrick (I knew there was a word for it) in roughly the right position, then slid the mast legs through the holes in the platform, pressed it down into place and lo and behold, it all lined up really well. What was I worried about? Well, to tell the truth, the alignment of the derricks. From the rear they looked like this when I had finished:- They are canted inwards towards the top slightly, but it is the best I could manage. I am happy with it. I painted up the mast legs and derricks, then added the pair of searchlights. The next part to add is the mainmast starfish. This was moulded in one part by Zvezda, but White Ensign had given the option of improving it, so off came all the plastic brackets and various attachment points, on went something like seven etch parts and became This was quite an improvement, but when I test fitted it to the top of the current mast, I crumpled one or two of the brackets. Thankfully they were not ruined, so a bit of CA and they were as good as new. This section will need careful alignment when I do add it, and during the test fitting it seemed to settle in almost any angle but true, so I have opened the location hole just a tad to ease fitting. I have also finally added the props and rudders. I used the plastic props and just between you and me, I did not thin them down, but may do on my next one. Don't tell anyone, will you? I also have a bit of cleaning to do, judging by the amount of dust on the rigging! Have a look... The searchlight is one I had to nick from my other kit of this, as it was not included by Zvezda. That is it for now, thanks for looking and the continued encouragement. All the best, Ray

Hi Rick, you did a cracking job on the first one, I remember it well. With what you learnt on that one, this should be a stunner, and the RNLI will benefit greatly from it. Look forward to seeing your progress, all the best, Ray

Hi Dave, this is a stunning build. I really admire the effort and quality you have put into her. The amount of detailing seems never ending, but it is in sight. All the best, Ray

Yes PC, what is the problem? After all, there is a Blenheim there so you are not done for... Oh yes, enjoying the Liberator too. All the best, Ray

Hello all. I have just finished this little kit, the civvi Airfix Tiger Moth. It is a world apart form the old tool kit in just about every respect you can think of. The parts were crisply moulded, with no flash and virtually no seam lines on the parts. Some of the bits are incredibly fragile, but thankfully none broke during removal from runners or during handling. I was also lucky in that none pinged from the tweezers into the great unknown. I did have a few small issues though, all down to my hamfistedness. The fuselage did not close up when I glued it, despite it doing so during test fitting. I put the cabane struts on the wrong way round to start with (told you it was my fault!) but retrieved the situation before the glue set. Then I refitted them probably too quickly, and got them out of alignment. This then caused the top wing to skew a lot. Then I found the interplane struts were not long enough. This very nearly caused the kit to find its way into the bin of doom. Overnight, I was wondering how I was going to solve this situation, especially as the fitting for the main struts caused me some concern. There are small rectangular depressions for the fitment points, and on the struts themselves there are very fine points even smaller than the rectangles. I was surprised there were not location holes to match the pins. The solution was drastic. I slid one linked pair (with a dab of glue on the pins) into the rectangles, wrapped masking tape around the wing to trap them in place, then put a few spots of CA to lock them in place. Then lots more spots to make sure. A couple of hours later, I did the same for the other set. This helped get the wing alignment a bit more true. Rigging was EZ-Line into blind holes in the lower wing running through open holes in the top then tensioned and fixed with CA. I only put one set of control wires to the rudder, but not any to the elevators. I found the location points of the undercarriage and tail struts were very small and awkward to see, but got there in the end. The only 'modification' I did was to sand down slightly the location ledges for the cowling to get that in line a bit better. Having looked at John Aero's solutions elsewhere in Britmodeller I think it is not too far out. I had trouble too with fitting the lower wing, and don't think I trimmed the area sufficiently, which may have contributed to the 'strut length' issue. Having got the top wing on and the rigging done, I then realised I had not added the wing walkway transfers. This was a bit of a boo-boo, and it proved I had done the wrong thing when the front of the transfers would not bed down on the wing leading edge curve, I could not get a cotton bud or tissue there to press down due to the rigging! It eventually did settle down with the aid of some Pledge/Future. I know I have had my own self-inflicted problems with this, but it is a beautiful kit, it looks the part and having done this one, I would certainly attempt another one in the future (maybe in the upcoming Group Build here on BM). Thanks for looking, all the best, Ray

Hello all! Blimey, was it July last year I did anything to this? Tell the truth, I got waylaid by three group builds (two WW1 100 Year Anniversary ones and an EE Lightning one) and a rather busy period leading up to Christmas in my retail job, I did not feel I could do this justice. Well, that is all over now, and I had a look at where I was, and what to do next. Last night, while trying to get my neck comfortable to sleep (it is cricked a bit and if I lay too long in one position, I get stuck! - ah AGE, it is a great thing to have. One learned gent said if you hurt it is a good thing, for you are still alive - a quote from Louis Wu, intrepid explorer to Ringworld) I remembered I had a set of brass props for Dreadnought. This morning, do you think I could find them? Well, eventually I did, in a place where I had previously looked, so all was well. I took a shot to give you a comparison of the kit props and the after-market ones I am not too convinced there is much difference! They cost quite a bit, but I think it was a waste of time and money. The brass is quite strong, and the attachement points large, and there are also mould lines around the blades which are raised by a significant amount, so would be quite hard work to clean up. There will be more progress on Dreadnought shortly, but it is good to be back in the swing, and ready for action again. Thanks for looking, regards, Ray

HaHa Mr P, I have actually managed to get to the (current) end of this thread. With your Lancaster build, I thought I was experiencing a serious case of Einstienian Relativistic Syndrome - to wit that every time I managed to read through the updates and gave it a rest for the night, I came back to the thread and I was further away from the end than previously. Great work on the Lanc, and I am looking forward to any solutions to potential Hasegawa hitches (as opposed to Airfix hitches) that might be thrown up. As always, you wear your heart on your sleeve, and we live your builds. All the best, Ray

A great group build, thanks to all who took part, and gave their experiences to help out mere mortals like myself, ultimately giving me a great experience with my Lightning. It was also a great idea naming 'pilots' too, I have a few more in mind for later projects. All the best, Raywotisalwayslearning

Mine took 4 days of sticking them on! Looks great though Enzo, and the BMF looks spot on too. All the best, Ray

Three letters O M G Ray, what is pleased as punch right now!!!

Hello, here is my build of the Airfix 1/72 F2A, 92 Sqn, pilot Flt Lt Ian Absentia. Unfortunately, he had to vanish when the photographs were taken, and as the photographer had another appointment he is missing from the line up. He sends his apologies, but that always seemed to happen to him... Oops, almost added some more pics but remembered the max 5 rule! Thanks for looking, all the best, Ray

Well, I am calling this done now. The final bits went on reasonably well, I had to replace the front pointy thing (probe) with some brass rod as the plastic one was somewhat bent. I had fun doing the cockpit transfers, but they ended up okay. The whole thing had a final coat of Wilkinsons Acrylic varnish, (brush painted) which does not seem to have affected the finish much, if at all, and has gone down quite smoothly. I will put more pics into the gallery in a mo Thanks to you all for the encouragement and hints and tips, I have learnt quite a few things from this group build. I really enjoyed building this, it has it's foibles shall we say, but the BM Massive helped out. Cheers for looking, all the best, Ray

What a lovely photograph! I am always impressed by the many excellent models photographs here on BM, but Geedubelyer this one took my breath away. Cheers, Ray

When the release schedule is released (sorry), shall we have a thread which then tries to link the models shown with the wrapped calender shots? Just wondering... Roll on Monday Regards, Ray

Hello, I echo all the above comments - a wonderful thread, and a superb model at the end of it. All the best, Ray

Thanks for those tips Ingo. I had already got the generic sets, but when the correct sets came out, and seeing the Kajeroo book (like yourself) I was thrilled when they arrived as they looked so much better. I am getting closer to the time when I need to figure out the best way of using them on the Zvezda version. Your photographs are a true inspiration for me. Regards, Ray

'AIFIX' Magister? Didn't see that to begin with.. I will be no proof reader either

Hello all. Phew, the transfers are on, and some more painting has been done too. I needed to redo the anti-glare panel, and got a hemispherical-ish finish over the nose ring, but not quite to my liking. Never mind. The results so far: The cannon ports have been picked out with H53 Gun Metal, as have the outsides of the exhausts, but I will try to dirty the latter with some Tamiya weathering powders later when the paint has cured. I have sprayed up the undercarriage doors and the missiles this morning, so the beast should hopefully be on its legs later on. I cannot help but recall a build review in Airfix Modelworld (March 2014) where the builder said that this went together well, with very little filler and needed 'little sanding' to achieve a finish suitable for Alclad. I wonder where we have all gone wrong? I know I have learnt a few things with this kit: 1) smooth the silver surfaces before building the thing 2) Test fit, then test fit again 3) Get no paint on joining surfaces 4) Test fit again I have really enjoyed this though, due in no small part to the advice from others of you on this group build, sharing your discoveries, and helping out us mere mortals. More progress soon I hope, all the best, Ray

Absolutely stunning, and I love the stand/spectator idea too. I am glad I got some of the aerial spreaders, but now tremble at the thought of using them. All the best, Ray

Fabulous result Jabba. It looks great in green/silver. Ray