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zebra

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Everything posted by zebra

  1. zebra
    Thanks for your comments everyone! @Rob S I’d love to see that conversion done. The thread you linked to was interesting - one post said that some of the Darr Heralds had provisions for Leonides in the wings! HP seem to have really struggled to let go of the piston engine! Just noticed from pictures of the real thing that the intake on the fin shouldn’t be there. Ah well, not removing it now. My defence will be that it was a deliberately OOB build - no doubt there are plenty of other things to fix. So onwards and upwards. Next jobs will be to finish decals and touch-ups, then paint the undercarriage and the slightly scary black and white striped props. cheers Julian
  2. zebra
    I've got the wings and engines painted, some touch-ups done, and some decals on. Decals are on one side only so far, and I need to do the door outlines and escape hatches - will probably get the rest done tomorrow, plus a few more touch-ups. Getting close to the finish line! thanks for looking Julian
  3. zebra
    Thanks! I contemplated getting the XP5Y1 but went with this one - I’m happy enough with that decision, but regret it ever so slightly because one of the bonus kits in the other kit is the Sea Dart, which would go very well with the Tradewind and would also fit this group build.
  4. zebra
    That masking looks great but my blood pressure rises just at the thought of doing it!
  5. zebra
    Thanks Dave. The gear legs seem to need to go in at this stage. The side walls of the undercarriage wells are built up first (from 5 parts when I would have thought it could be done with 2) and the gear legs are attached to them, then they are attached to the inside of the lower wing half. The gear legs are trapped between the side walls and the lower wing half so leaving them out and attaching them later doesn’t seem to be an option. Careful handling required from now on!
  6. zebra
    Count me in - love the Skyhawk. I've got 3 Hasegawa 1/48 kits in the stash - an A-4C, TA-4J (which will become an OA-4M), and an A-4M - and on the lookout for more (could really do with a couple of A-4E's but haven't seen one at a reasonable price for a while).
  7. zebra
    A month in and I hadn't really got going - time to get cracking. I've painted the cockpit tub and got most of the Eduard PE added - just a few bits to go - and while paint and glue were setting I've got the wing assembled. Here's how it looks so far: The grey on Eduard's pre-painted PE is clearly too light. This is going to be a closed cockpit build, but I'm still not sure I can live with it. Might have to try and paint the light grey bits. thanks for looking Julian
  8. zebra
    I know I said in my other thread that I'd start the Tradewind first, but I couldn't resist the Mermaid, so I've made a start. Here are all the parts laid out - a fairly simple kit. I've painted the cockpit black and filled the nose of one of the fuselage halves with liquid gravity - I think this is likely to be a tail-sitter without it. I started with the fuselage. It wasn't a perfect kit - one or both of the halves was ever so slightly bowed, so that they only properly met at the ends, but a couple of hours clamped together while the epoxy glue set sorted that out. The fuselage halves aligned pretty well with each other, although one half was fractionally longer than the other, and a bit of work with a sanding stick has got it looking pretty good. The parts seem pretty well cast, only one bubble to deal with. So here's how it looks tonight: thanks for looking Julian
  9. zebra
    Blue and red paint done. A few touch-ups needed, but I think I'll paint the grey bits (wings, nacelles, tailplanes, underside) first.
  10. zebra
    Thanks everyone! And @CaracalModels your decals are awesome! i have a question for everyone about my photos - I’m viewing on my phone at the moment and they look a bit dark to me, on my computer when I was uploading to Flickr they looked ok. Do they look dark to everyone or is it just me?
  11. zebra
    Very nice @pigsty - better than mine! The wraparound SEA scheme does look good on a Thud doesn’t it. I’m in two minds about the Hobby Boss kit. On the one hand the Monogram kit needs rescribing (and there are a lot of panels!), on the other the HB cockpit is poor and needs an Aires pit shoehorning in. On balance I think I prefer dealing with the Aires cockpit - just!
  12. zebra
    I’ve contemplated the Amodel 1/72 kit but it’s huge. I think 1/144 (or whatever scale the Revell kit is) is the right scale for this!
  13. zebra
    I'm a bit fascinated by jet and turboprop-powered flying boats. I think it's because the heyday of the flying boat was very much the piston engine era, so there's a combination of the modern and the anachronistic about them. So of course I'm interested in Beriev's aircraft. I'm planning to build three of them - the A-40 Mermaid (which I've wanted to build ever since I saw one at Fairford in '96), its smaller civilian sibling the Be-200, and their ancestor the R-1, Beriev's first jet flying boat. The A-40 and R-1 are from Anigrand - the R-1 is one of the bonus kits in the A-40 box: And the Be-200 is from Eastern Express. In theory the injection moulded kit should be the easier one, but I have a feeling it might be the other way round! cheers Julian
  14. zebra
    I'm going to have a go at the Anigrand 1/144 Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind. A fascinating aeroplane - conceived initially for maritime patrol, it was redesigned for transport and ended up with a brief service life as a tanker. From the sounds of things it could have been a very good aircraft, but was beset with engine problems, and it only lasted 2 years in service. The Anigrand kit looks quite nice. This and the Beriev will be my first go at resin kits, and it looks like a good place to start. Here's what you get for the Tradewind - the box also contains 1/144 kits of the Beaver, Seasprite (both tiny!) and North American XA2J Super Savage. Hopefully I'll make a start at the weekend cheers Julian
  15. zebra
    @Mjwomack you might need to explain the LP reference in the title to younger BMers! Great to see this GB is in the poll. Really, really want it to happen!
  16. zebra
    The postie just delivered my Anigrand Beriev A-40. Looks nice, can't wait to get started. One of the three bonus kits is the Beriev R-1 - Beriev's first jet flying boat and the ancestor of the A-40 and Be-200. Seems appropriate to build the R-1 as well, so that's four builds now! Really ought to make a start.
  17. zebra
    Thanks Ray - yes it will be Air UK, using decals cobbled together from a few sources including Two Six sheets for an F-27 and the BIA Herald (for the rego's).
  18. zebra
    Here's my 1/48 F-105G, which I was building in the Sharkmouths GB. Build thread is here. It's the Hobby Boss kit, which I thought was pretty good but unnecessarily fiddly in a few places. Decals are from Caracal and were excellent, cockpit is Aires, and I used MPR paints. thanks for looking Julian
  19. zebra
    Finished! This weekend I've painted and attached the seats (not all that impressed with the Aires seats - should have got some Eduard seatbelts for a start), windscreen and canopies, stores, and miscellaneous small bits. Working out what stores to fit was a little tricky - I couldn't find a lot of photos of this particular aircraft, none of which gave a really good sense of what to put under the wings, but did find an online reference saying a typical combat load would be, from left to right, an ALQ-71 ECM pod, AGM-78 Standard ARM, centre line fuel tank, wing-mounted fuel tank, and AGM-45 Shrike. A couple of online photos showed this aircraft with an MER on the centre line station, but as there isn't one in the kit and I don't have one in the spares box that wasn't an option. One thing I did find online was that this aircraft often seems to have had quite a worn-looking drop tank under the right wing, with paint worn down to the bare metal and an unpainted centre section, so I tried to replicate that. Anyway here it is - more photos in the gallery. thanks for looking Julian
  20. zebra
    Here's my 1/48 F-105G, finished just in time for the end of the GB. It's the Hobby Boss kit, with an Aires cockpit and Caracal decals for a Georgia ANG machine. Build thread is here. thanks for looking Julian
  21. zebra
    This weekend's modelling has mostly been focused on getting the F-105G in the Sharkmouths GB finished on time, but I have also pressed on with painting the Herald. So here's a not-particularly-exciting photo of the Herald with white paint on the bits that will end up white, and white primer on the other bits, so the whole thing looks white! It'll start to get more colourful soon.
  22. zebra
    Thanks @Romeo Alpha Yankee And @Corsairfoxfouruncle. Work has been ridiculously busy (but not in a bad way) and in a couple of weeks my modelling time will be curtailed briefly by a holiday in Queensland, so it’s all good! The Phantoms will be built, if there isn’t a GB that suits them I might have to do a bit of non-GB modelling (there’s always the KUTA of course)
  23. zebra
    A lot of rigging and tricky paintwork but it’ll look magnificent in the end. I’ll be following.
  24. zebra
    I’ve been looking forward to this GB - the last one was a lot of fun and featured some amazing builds. I’ll be building big flying boats in a small scale this time round - planning on three builds, all in 1/144: Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind (Anigrand), Beriev A-40 Mermaid (also Anigrand) and Beriev Be-200 (Eastern Express). The two Anigrand kits will be my first all-resin builds. The Mermaid is still in the post so I’ll probably start the Tradewind first - just got to get the Thud in the sharkmouths GB finished this weekend, then will get started.
  25. zebra
    I had made a start on these - did some work on the cockpits - but life has got in the way and I’ve realised I really don’t have enough time to get these done, unless I rush them. So they’re going back on the shelf and will come down again when I have time to do them justice. good luck everyone with the last few weeks of the GB cheers Julian
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