Kallisti

My first entry into the GB will be a small diorama based around a 1:48 Hasegawa Hurricane Mk 1 in the livery of 501 Sqn who were based at RAF Gravesend at various times between August and September 1940. This airfield, now mostly under a housing estate was just behind my Grammar School in Gravesend, so there is a vague personal connection. I plan on including the Aifix Albion refueller in the diorama, but I'm determined not to fall into the trap seen frequently in these sorts of dioramas of having everything being worked on the aircraft at the same time. So the kits to be used: plus there will be a few figures and assorted bits from these kits I'll begin construction in the next couple of days once I've completed the current Hitachi Road Roller is built. My second build will be more ambitious, a 1:32 Spitfire Mk 1 with open engine covers using a combination of the Revell IIa and the HobbyBoss Mk Vb kits converted to Mk 1. More on that later...

Construction of the main pices is done - its not a very large or complex kit, although it has some lovely detail So its all ready for paint! In fact here are the two roller having been painted with Alcllad Stainless Steel However, when it came to weathering these, the paint essentially fell off the plastic, so it had to be tripped off. I then repainted it using Mr Metal Color Stainless Steel, painting aroudn the drum so any brush strokes left in the paint were in the right direction, then a coat of Steel over the top. This was then left to dry for a day or so then got slathered with Flory Wash light dirt and concrete. This was again left to dry and I took a coarse sanding stick to the result very gently scratching the paint surface to end up with this The inside of the rollers need a bit of work as they are still just the dried wash. I'm pleased with the well used effect this has achieved. The assembly of the other parts after painting then has allowed me to start weathering on them too, initially with the mix of concrete, light dirt and some dark dirt Here are the controls that will be attachied directly in front of the seat Rear Front I need to add some oil stains which will work nicely using enamel washes in conjunction with the dried clay washes that are already on it.

I've been doing some research and I think I've got a solution. I'd like to build a 1:32 Spitfire 1 with the cowlings off showing the Merlin III engine. The new Revell IIa doesn't have that level of detail but the HobbyBoss Vb does so I'm going to use the fuselage of that, adapt the Merlin 66 that is the powerplant of that back to a Merlin III and add a lot more pipework and detail. I'll also use the wings from the Revell IIa, although I may try to mitigate some of the rivet detail on those wings! I found a set of notes from the sorely missed Edgar Brooks on his opinion of how to convert the Revell IIa into a I, alongside notes on what is wrong with the IIa full stop (eg the intake for the Heywood compressor on the cowling and so on). I've ordered the Barracuda replacement oil intake an 5 spoke wheels. I think its really sad we don't have a proper kit of the Mk 1 in 1:32 - there seems no end of versions of the 109 in that scale!!!

Brilliant, thanks, I just looked through my books again and found a reference here as well https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bdMVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123#v=onepage&q&f=false

Don't know if this has been asked in the thread (65 pages of it!!!) before but where did the Accumulator Trolley plug into the Hurricane Mk 1? I checked my old builds of Hurricane II in Burma and I appear to have plugged it in under the starboard wing but I can't find or remember any reference to this so wanted to be sure before I made a 'schoolboy' error Thanks

Yick! I've had experience with very old Revell tools, the Hurricane 'IIc' which was anything but a IIc and horrible

Is there a Spitfire 1 in 1:32 scale? I can't seem to remember seeing one, so if not which would be the easiest to convert back Revell Spitfire IIa or HobbyBoss Vb?

Mine didn't have plating, that must be a recent addition, but yes I always strip that stuff off and do my own! That did also occur to me, no sign of a pump mechanism. Maybe they thought it was so concealed not to bother.

Back in 2018 I built the Hasegawa kito f the Hitachi excavator and enjoyed it so much I picked up the companion kit, the Hitachi Vibratory Road Roller After building the ICM Ford Model T Fire Engine recently, I thought I'd continue with the non-Sci Fi, non-military theme and launch into this lovely little kit! Its not very big but there is a lot of lovely detail molded onto the parts The colour scheme is pretty straightforward and reflected in the plastic colours. I'm not sure I'll use the rather ropey-looking figure Construction has started and it basically boils down to two major components, the front and back which are coupled by a semi-universal joint in the middle. For ease of painting I'm keeping the assemblies colour separated for now. The opportunities for weathering on this are quite exciting!

Just for a change I decided to build something that wasn't Sci Fi or military and since I've had this kit in the stash since it was released a couple of years ago I thought I'd give it a bash! The most complex part of the build was caused by my decision to use Alclad to paint the brass pieces, so they all had to be separated out from the main body which meant I had to ignore the assembly sequence in the instructions. That said it was a much simpler build that my two most recent models which took 6 weeks and 1 month respectively to build, this took just about a week I added the 'leather' straps restraining the ladder as there was nothing in the kit, the ladders just sit in the brackets which means they'll fall out as soon as it turns a corner! I used strips of painted Tamiya masking tape plus a PE buckle left over from a 1:32 Spitfire seat harness. I added some decals from the spares box to the 'dials' on the back of the water tanks I added decals from the spares box for the dials behind the water tanks It was a fun little build in contrast to the much more complex things I've built recently. Next on the bench is the Hasegawa kit of the Hittachi Vibratory Tandem Roller!

Well thank you I shall consider that a compliment...

That looks like utter bilge! They seem to be starting with the later book about Seldon's earlier life that were more action oriented. For some reason it made me think of Dune, but it looks like utter codswallop and as for the Apple self congratulatory primping in the trailer itself, get over yourselves!

Nice pic, would love to do a hanger scene but with a 22" model that would be a very large base

...and DONE! The last laps were not easily photographable, basically varnish, weathering and final assembly of the components. It was pointed out that the Booster pack is too far back in the pics, so I had a harsh word or two with the ground crew who moved it to the correct place in the middle of the spine after the photos were taken. What is more, all the lights still work! These first three photos had to be redone when I noticed the Moonbase Alpha logo on the command module was crooked, so that had to be corrected and re-photographed! Booster pod in place. I stretched the metal clips a bit so they don't grip quite so tightly. I also gave them a coat of Diamond White as I did with the screws holding the lab pod in. The correct location for this should be over the middle of the spine. Lab pod close up With the Gold Medal winning Rescue Eagle from 2016 My Space:1999 model collection - these have all been built by me since 2016. I do own a Product Enterprise Eagle but I didn't build that so it doesn't get a place here Front the left, (all Round 2 kits except for the last) Gold Medal winning Rescue Eagle from 2016, Gold Medal winning Cargo Eagle from 2017, Lab Pod Eagle 2020, Hawk from 2018, 14" Eagle from 2019, UNCL resin Laser Tank #1 from 2019. In the stash is another Round 2 Hawk, an Airfix Hawk, another 22" Cargo Eagle and Passenger Eagle and another Laser Tank. This completes my trio of Eagles but I do have plans to build the next passenger Eagle as a VIP one with a fully lit Pod interior! That won't be this year however, there is only so much masking tape I can handle for one model! Sadly its unlikely that this will be entered into the Scale Model World competition this year, even if the show goes ahead in November, its unlikely I will be attending ANY model shows or large gatherings of people until there is a COVID-19 vaccine.

The open framework is the most difficult hence why I positioned it on the black sky bit and the original pic wasn't very large either. I blurred the acylic rod for the Orion so disappears a bit more..