zebra

Painting finished and half the decals on: more soon Julian

Back to the bench - painting finished and a few decals on: more soon Julian

Back in business after some time away. Decals are on: more soon Julian

I saw a chicken crossing the road yesterday. Always thought part of the joke was that it's something you don't see chickens do! This has made me irrationally happy. I wasn't able to stop and see why it had crossed the road, so the question remains unanswered. But whatever it was crossing the road for, it was in a hurry, its little legs were going pretty fast.

also the Mooyashischev Bison and the Mooper Constellation

Also the Westland COW gun fighter And the Vickers Viscownt, and anything by Moocdonnell Douglas

Took a while to get to it, but most of the paint is on. Still needs aluminium leading edges on the tailplanes and on the centre engine intake, and a black radome, and I need to paint the engines as well. more soon Julian

Not had an awful lot of modelling time lately - most of the paint is now on: The inevitable happened to the nose gear - but I have a plan, I'm going to 3D-print one, which I was planning to do for the second build anyway - that way I can make one that can be added at the end. Going to be away from the bench a bit over the next couple of weeks, but at least I'll have time for the CAD. more soon Julian

Ages since I posted and this has slipped to page 5! Most of the paint is on. The rings on the cowlings are blue, but don't look it in this photo! decals soon, although I'm going to be away on and off for the next couple of weeks cheers Julian

Great idea, count me in

I'd have been tempted to go with G-BFZL though - much more varied history: Trans Australia Airlines, two different US corporate owners, RAAF, Omani Air Force, Royal Swazi National Airways, BMA, Manx (twice), British Air Ferries, British World, ending up with an operator in Zaire.

Count me in. I've got loads of options to choose from.

That might have been the only thing in its favour!

Got some paint on the first build and filler in the windows of the second. Pretty much decided they're going to be the same airframe, G-AOYM. I think I'll resist the temptation to buy a heap more kits and build all the other schemes 'YM carried (3 BEA schemes, Cambrian, British Air Ferries and Lineas Aereas Canarias)! more soon Julian

Probably about half way through painting: blue next cheers Julian

Your Viscount's looking great @Mjwomack My recollection of IOM flights on turboprops is they all cruised around 10,000 feet - mind you this was always from Manchester or Liverpool, 30-40 min flights, so they might have got a bit higher on longer flights. Thankfully never had a problem with airsickness so never had to reach for those paper bags! The Viscounts and Friendships were an awful lot nicer to fly in than the Shorts 360s. Noisy and unpressurised - made your ears pop like nothing else! As for the ferries - the Irish Sea can get pretty choppy - I don't remember suffering myself but my Mum got seasick pretty easily. Which explains why we usually flew.

I'm good to go with the Dora Wings Caudron Simon, will be away a bit over the next few weeks though so probably won't be able to start until mid-April.

I've been getting carried away in the baby boomers GB and neglecting the twin-engined tadpole, time to get back to it. I had been procrastinating over the slightly fiddly (or so it looked in the instructions) undercarriage, bit the bullet today and got it done. This kit's following the frankly annoying trend for kits that need the undercarriage to go in before final assembly, thus risking damage whilst handling and painting. Sadly there doesn't seem to be any way around it this time. Here's where it's up to: Once the engines are on it'll be time to start masking and priming.

Primer on: Pretty happy with this, not a lot to fix up. I'm not convinced by the engine nacelles though - the bulge looks a bit exaggerated to me. Might do something different with the second one. Second Viscount has been started - I've filled the windows, might get to sanding them flush tomorrow. more soon Julian

A coat of primer went on today. It highlighted a couple of small areas that need a bit of filler - these have been dealt with and re-primed - so I'll start painting tomorrow. more soon Julian

Thanks! It's worked out quite well: Engines and tailplanes on too. It'll be time to start painting soon. Meanwhile a delivery from Classic Airlines turned up the other day, including a very nice decal for a Manx Viscount. I still want to finish this one in BA colours so I suppose I'm just going to have to make another! The CA decal is for G-AOYM (I'd have preferred G-BFZL as I've flown on it, but AOYM will do) so maybe this one will be AOYM as well. more soon Julian

Definitely going to need one of these. The three schemes in the kit are good but there are plenty of other great schemes to do as well. Draw Decals has the Alfred Wegener Institute covered, which is very tempting. Really needs skis!

Your Viscount’s looking great! I suspect the lines of the EE kit are a bit crisper but it’s no mojo restorer! Unless your mojo is restored by this kind of kit, which gets us back round to the other meaning of S&M…

Count me in. From the current stash I can do Viper, Merlin, Olympus, Spey, Derwent, Pegasus, Conway, Avon, RB199, EJ200, RB145, Dart, Tay, Nene, RB211, Kestrel and Gnome. So one or two options.

Sounds like an EE kit! Wouldn't bet the house on the clear part fitting either. Watching with interest as I'll be building one later in the year. I have a soft spot for the 1-11 too, first jet I flew on, aged 7, a BA 500 (up to then all my flights had been on Viscounts).