perdu

Love the tiny details Ced

Can't reach the buttons? An ideal project for a remote radio controlled bell push to switch on from below... Goes away to ponder

A lovely Meatbox, exactly the 'look' of the Kestrel in Cosford I'm looking for. XF-16 I need to restock, my bottle has the lid stuck on and must be forty years old. Did you spray that or brush it? A really spot-on finish.

I am sorry to hear that. I wonder how some people can get so much power to allow them to be abusive with it, a real pity. Thanks for all you did though, really appreciated.

Ah 'Not a fan of their 'High Speed Silver'' Right thanks, that was going to get tested this morning on my Kestrel since I have mislaid* my aerosol Tamiya TS colour silver which was expected to do the duty this morning. I find that if I wet the spray enough it sinks into a smooth amorphous silver colour without the obvious droplet joining airbrush paint finish in silver or aluminium colours that always spoils the silver sheen. I am going to redo the red line beneath the cockpit on the JP4, weird thing is I was aware and cautious hoping to get it right having memories of 'assisting' Steve in that very task when he was performing Jet Provosts for our entertainment , rather a long time ago. *mislaid=lost in the jungle Lady G, Mrs P as we call our important halves herein, says she cannot understand how I can find anything in there. This shelf or bench proposed for modelmaking and painting purposes is a big cardboard box repurposed from delivery equipment to status as paint bench and is unceremonially tied to the back of This in the garage, paint boxes obscure the luggage rack and my big box nestles under the number plate light to give the painting/bench box some stability. The whole car is acting as an expensive shelf in the garage but that will change soon because the car, Lara is coming out for a spring drive very soon. Mad isn't it Now I have told you about it I hope the silver aerosol comes out of hiding…

What Pete says so perfectly. I love the tiny inconsequentials and this van is full of them. Have you ever tried Daco Strong for decal setting? Beats Micro Sol into a cocked hat, proverbially I would say.

I'm over here watching that Harrier like a 'ork. And the others too to see how they finally balance. Fun times for CedB

I wonder if buying their Blue Line paint and thinning it for the airbrush with a decent spirit based thinners might work better. Great colour standards with the two colours I've already used, Lichen green looks exactly right. I think there is a session of spraying various Mr Colour Levelling thinner mixes ahead.

Now then, where was I? Ah yes white on and then mask the red only bits. Hataka paints--- open the box---select test paint, as requested. Red stripe box = paint designed and engineered for airbrush. So shake well, pretend my hand is a paint bottle shaker like the device the model supplier I use advertises every time he sends me supplies. Open bottle and drip a few drops (drip drop, is that onomatopoeic? Who knows?) into the paint funnel thingmy and begin misting the paint over the fuselage of the JP3/4. A short, maybe too short time after drying, upstairs into the den for a test demasking session. Fingers crossed, I'm going in... Ah. Can you see what he did? Yes he did! He didn't mask the model properly. Fool, all say fool out loudly children. However, observe. Do you see the paint on the nose? I just lightly caught it with an errant fingernail and it came away, very, very soft paint alert!!! But as it is I used a clean dry cocktail stick to rub off the mad overspray, left the surface without a trace Look. So a conclusion, inevitable really, Hataka paint has a real affinity to being sprayed in its Red Stripe Box form. And sadly the longevity sucks... I intend leaving it two days untouched now to see if time's winged chariot will bring toughness to the game. The curve on the port side is crying out for attention so maybe now I will remask it to open the curve up a tad and touch in with the airbrush, stranger things have happened.

Hell's teeth on a bicycle, was there ever anyone stupid enough to attempt to unglue that from the warm, comfortable grasp of gravity? Sad, oh so sad the things we do to Youth.

It is getting to be just, er just fabulous. 'tis already. Yes I noticed Giorgio has stopped mithering you about the paint too.

It's like a bungalow in the 'tropics' will it have a punkah wallah operating the manual aircon system? I see a Malay servant wandering round topping up long cool drinks...

Now THAT'S a real helicopter, you betcha!

I'm proper fed up, me. How dare you notice that before me? Mind you, you do get prize for being alerter than me too. Nice box of things milord generalship-sir and all. I bet you whipped the decorative bits out first...

Thanks Pete, very nice indeed. Why does a USAF one look suddenly fun huh?

Time's winged chariot might have been derailed a tad but here is a small tadlet of said time oozing out onto the Kestrel this week. I really wasn't going to, but. Rudimentary wheel well cavities excavated and filled in and the wingtip fairings for the outriggers having a rare piece of attention focussed upon them. The ones on the Kestrel are different in lots of respects and my OCD-ity needs me to at least make a try... I had totally ignored the actual shapes of them when I cannibalised the Airfix GR3. Fortunately Julien has made sure I don't have to dash out to Cosford for a look see, this useful shot is from the BM walkarounds. Enough, more than enough to allow me a fettle around using the P1127 and Harrier pieces which are startlingly different to the ones I need. Aha looking at that there is an unwanted trench along the lower fin edge, soon sort that too. And with the cyano and bi-carb out on the bench this needs a session on top too. But shouting at me from a nearby cupboard is... Whaddaya say, build it before or after adding a Sea Venom to the trainers build just because twin boom de Havilland? Instead of?

Good plan Charlie, don't forget the Hasegawa kit, lovely as it is has a badly shaped nose which is too long by nigh on a quarter of an inch and with the wrong side profile. It's basically a great model apart from that and the nemesis of all Jaguar kits, badly represented undercart legs.

Takes me back to a fun build I used a 1000lb-er from my bombs and loud noise making bits box #1 #2 #3 #4 comparing with one I made mid-ish 20th century #5 dried green stuff sanded to shape and work inside about to begin I have tried to get Steve @Fritagto release his wonderful CBLS and stores to the market but in the face of him having to work really hard to pay for sixteen skiing and walking holidays a year( ) he can't find the time to do it. Which leaves this method which isn't a very difficult conversion. I did cast from mine to make them for use under a couple of Jags. #6 Go on, it isn't too hard.

It was deffo a Brummie Practice, that's how I used to read my Birmingham Mail on the bus.

Indeed she was, often missed during some of our long rambles.

Not a difficult starter in the winter though Selwyn Jeroen here are a few poor, sadly, close up shots for you. The girl reading the other fellow's newspaper? Well I wonder whether she sees herself in the magistrate's court reports and the flash geezer in the front might fancy his chances with her when they got off the bus. Hanging off the underframe is the skid device used to slow a bus down on very hilly sections if it seems likely to get out of control. The conductor has control of his platform and gives tickets from his machine to intending passengers. Tobacco advertising was normal back then, some doctors said they favoured smoking. Me? Very glad I gave up. All the advertising was taken from contemporary photographs and replicated with Word Pro type fonts or lifted from scans of same. The lead horse pulls on a chain tack set drawing a swingletree to pull the draw bar and guide the other pair of horses. They put the power on via standard leathern traces on the cross frame. The etched buckles which were a godsend can be clearly seen all over the tack for the three. How about a last look at the throng upstairs, downstairs is less easy to see sadly. Painting figures is never likely to be a strong point in my modelling but this merry bunch puts the bus into character, hope it meets approval.

Sorry our kid but the Bull Ring is the other way from New Street, down Spiceal Street.

It took a long time to arrive, I suppose that goes for lots of Brummie buses, I bet we Brummies all spent lifetimes getting soaked before the bus came. Based around photographs of horse drawn transport in Birmingham at the turn of the (19th/20th) century this is the end of a long felt wish for a bus to join the rest of my horse drawn fleet. The trip to Edgbaston from 'town' is now on. The harness uses buckles printed to add sparkle to 1/32 or 54mm figures, made by Aber and VModels in eastern Europe and I thank them for making my life easier than when I built my Hansom cab. Put a little life into the shot. And The long winded build is over there at (or near) Thanks for taking the time to look amigos.

That grey. Exactly right I remember it well from the colour of the exhaust system heat exchanger I had to buy for my NSU 1200 which obvs came from the same VAG Audi stores manifest as yours. As for the model, well I am quietly building up a stock of "Oh dammit that is wonderfuls" I'm saving for the end. oh wow.

Good looking chaps, its a pity one of them isn't a lady but hey our own erstwhile Nimmy driver was never that ladylike anyway. Its going to be a pleasure riding along with you. I loved the Nimrods in white over grey, a proper stately colour scheme.