mideast-mover

I'm deeply sorry to read of Merv's passing, but he will be well remembered amongst the Britmodeller community. It's also comforting to know that his presence, personality and willingness to help others will live on in the posts he has made here, and in the memories of his fellow modellers and enthusiasts. The wealth of knowledge he was always willing to share, and clearly the generosity displayed in helping out even those he only knew through this forum, will never be forgotten. I never met "spike", but have read countless posts by him giving a brief insight into his life, knowledge, and service of his country. Rest in Peace, and be assured - you will not be forgotten.

My thoughts exactly! But what's the worst that can happen?! Better I try it out on this 'un, and ruin £20 worth of plastic, than trying it out on something more pricey I suppose.... Define "proper"!!! I have two sheets of plasticard, some milliput, and a few basic tools. The only "fancy" thing I have with me is the dremel, which I had posted to me!! I may be on a steep learning curve, unless I get a supply of goodies sent to me from the UK... Exactly my thinking!! And plenty of people include some good shots of them in their WIPs before, during, and after fitting. i just need a couple from different angles, and once I've found them, I think I should be sorted. Possibly. Now THAT is something I'd like to see! When is that going to be kicking off? I know when I do mine I shall be heavily referring to your main man "The General"s build thread. That is definitley inspiring... I tried those, but to no avail!! The offending part was just on the curve, and for some reason I couldn't reach it. I ended up using one of those long, flexible thingy-ma-bobs for reaching into a tight space (in an engine bay, for example) and grabbing a dropped bolt. Did the trick

The rest of my progress, up to date... I've glued a little plasticard inside the leading edge of the wings just to give a smothering a milliput something extra to grab on to... Then applied some superfine after masking off the immediate area around where I want to slap the filler... Once dry, I checked it wouldn't ll just break off the second I started sanding, and then I whipped out....the dremel, just to make life easier After taking down most of the excess, so it's almost level with the surface of the wing, I've taken over with some "diamond" sanding sticks, or something or other - I forget what they are called - and some abrasive paper of varying grades. I made an impromptu (sp) sanding block out of a pack of playing cards and some bodge tape too That's me up-to-date! Progress is slow, seeing as work is quite hectic. My major stumbling block now though, is what to do with the slats...I'll mull over what I'm trying to say before attempting to get the words out, as I know what I want to say, I just can't form the sentences for some reason! I will need to take a few extra photos to illustrate my points too... Question - I have several photos that I am using for reference saved to my HD. Can I post them on here, to illustrate my point, with the caption something along the lines of "Image belongs to owner, and is posted for illustration purposes only. It will be removed upon request if there are any problems" or words to that effect? TIA

Oh, before my break, I thought I should point out a second task I've decided upon. I'm going to try and get in every single emoticon on here, just to make the whole typing game a bit more fun, so in advance!

Greetings one and all! I've decided to actually do my own WIP thread, having seen so many other people do them, and the wealth of knowledge, help, and guidance they receive. I'm going to be building the 1/48 Italeri Tornado IDS (#2668), and it shall be dressed up like a beautiful Desert Pink GR.1 Op Granby lady. I hope. We shall see Aftermarket shall be in the form of Model Alliance decals (MA 48174 - for those that are interested) , a NeoMega cockpit (following some extremely helpful advice from BMers) and...well that's it so far. I would have LOVED to put some Paragon resin into it, but, alas, everytime I saw some and was tempted to buy it, what could be called "common sense" prevailed, and I decided I'd only buy the aftermarket when I came to building it. And the Paragon shut down, the stocks dried up, and I've been left with nothing but sorrow and regret... But still, all is not lost! I'm being extremely ambitious, and I'm making my own flaps and slats. My first real attempt at what I would call "proper" scratch building", although some of the more seasoned modellers here may be able to reel off a set in their sleep! For me, this is the most complicated thing I've done as far as scratching is concerned. That, and trying to scratch my heel when I had a cast on some years ago. I think this is more challenging though... Anyway, enough of my babbling! I won't be including sprue shots or box shots, as everybody knows what they look like. If you really want to see, try here Right, first thing is first. The bit that I am most likely to fudge up. The flaps and slats! This may take a while, so please bear with me. Excuse time! I work all sorts of hours, as many of you will sympathise. And I share a room with another lad, as fewer of you may sympathise and live on a military base in the Middles East This restricts my modelling somewhat, but I find ways to get some done First up, I removed the wings from the sprues (as you may expect), and taped off the areas I didn't want to cut with some of your bog standard electrical tape. Actually, tell a lie! The first step was sending out a request for information on the Paragon flaps/slats fitting process - mainly how much to remove from where. Many thanks to keefr22 for that!! So, the second thing to do was the first thing I said first, after the first thing I said second. Still with me?? I then used a new scalpel (I have no idea which number - it was just sharp and pointy!) and began carefully scoring down the panel lines of the sections I intended to remove, repeating several times, and then several times more, and repeatedly until the sections were almost removed, and I could see the white lines coming through on the underside of the parts. I then scored from the underside to remove the piece I wanted! I have no idea why, or whether anybody else does it like that...It just felt like the thing to do! And probably makes no difference at all! With the help of a razor saw (JLC I think?) courtesy of Paul at Little Cars (highly recommend this) I removed the flaps from the upper wings. On one, I was a little too eager, and began removing the whole section, including the "spines" that protrude from the trailing edge area. Whoops! Some CA later, and I was back on track. Once all the bits and bobs were removed from the kit wings, I glued them together, and then continued with the flaps and slats... The next step was trying to replicate the Paragon offering, using references from all over the shop, including some very helpful pictures from, again, keefr22, and various other members' pictures from within their WIPs. So for that, thank you BM for being such a massive resource! I can't name individual people for the help a gleaned from their work, as there are so many segments I've looked at from all over the site, so a general thank you will have to do. To start this part, I used some plasticard to increase the length of the upper wing section of the flaps and give me something to play with when it comes to shaping this area. Next, I checked my references again, and realised I had made my first "booboo" and had followed the Italeri panel lines far too religiously When cutting out the lower wing section of the flaps, the Italeri panel line is wrong (according to several posts on here by credible - in my eyes - sources) and I hadn't removed enough plastic! Cue the plasticard again!! The above two steps were then glued together and left for a while to dry...et voilà!! Then I glued the slats parts together. This part, I'm not so confident in. I need to massively thin down the kit plastic here, and I also need to find some better pictures of the lower wing part. I'm not quite sure what to do here, which I shal *TRY* to explain in a bit - in English, I hope! Whilst all that dried, I turned back to the wings proper. And decided I should amend the cutting error here too! In my haste, as I was clock watching before before work, I measured it up and cut. Without measuring a second time to make sure. Enter Mr Plasticard, again. I have a feeling we shall get to know each other very well over the coming weeks, and more probably, months. I'm now going to take a breather before my fingers fall off! As always, any comments, good bad, or ugly, are welcome and definitely sought after, as I'm trying to expand on my skills and "step it up" a notch, away from my comfort zone. I've learned from pretty much all of the WIPs I've read that somebody nearly always has a better way of doing things, or reminds one of something one has forgotten. I don't know why that ended up a "posh" end to the sentence, but then again, there's a lot I don't know at the moment! Like what to do with the slats and leading edge areas..... *Dons thinking cap*

Hi all, just a quickie, and I hope I'm not stepping on any toes! Does anybody need any photos of anything specific from a GR.4? I'll have a couple parked up at one of the places I work soon, so will have chance to grab a fair few photos for myself, but if anybody wants anything for reference, I'll try and get a shot. Happy Modelling

As above really...does anybody know of any UAE C-17 decals (1/144) being out yet? If not, are there any in the pipeline?

I love those photos! You've really brought that to life. Good effort

I have this one which I picked up from evilBay ridiculously cheap (IMO) The variable speed is great, and it has the guts to be used for things above and beyond modelling! I'm very happy with it, but I wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't been for the bargain price of £53 inc. P&P. Yes, it's second hand, but I wouldn't have guessed it from the condition it's in. I imagine somebody bought it, used one attachment once, and never used it again.

Thanks, I'll have a look at it! I didn't even know there was an alternative to the NeOmega offering! I'm using the Italeri IDS Tornado. Are the cockpits worth the money though? I'm a fan of adding some AM to a build, but if I was buying all 3 at the same time, it seems a bit much, and...hard to justify!

Hi everyone. I am going to be extremely predictable and do an Operation Granby theme for the above three jets. I think they'd look awesome together, so I'm already decided on that aspect. I'm toying with the idea of ordering the NeOmega cockpits for all three, from here, but that amounts to nigh on £50 Would it be worth it, or would I be wasting my money? I've read terrific reviews: I'm just not sure if I'm silly to part with such a wedge of cash What do you think? You're help is, as always, much appreciated.

This looks like a real beauty!! You've done a good job with the underside. I may have to consider a new addition to the stash! A bit daft regarding the QB seat. I would have expected better! I always find Aires/QB to pretty good. I hate to point it out - it's only a little "niggly" thing, and it is in no way meant to detract from the quality of your build....add some Os to your toos!!

Ahhh I see! Linky 3rd from bottom. I gave up after that! And here

I've never done it, but would a template work? Either something you have around the house, or make something then cut around it? Or a pair of compasses? (the ones used for cutting) If you put something in the centre of the roundel that will prevent you ruining it with the tip of the compass in the centre of said roundel... No doubt somebody else will have done this, and have a tried and tested method!

Which A-4 are you intending it for? I know Aires do them. EDIT** Try here for the selection from a well known supplier. Google brings up quite a few results too, as does evilBay