Procopius
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Posts posted by Procopius
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1 hour ago, IanHx said:
Depends if we're ever going to see a return to the scale of show pre-pandemic.
Maybe we're only looking at a 2-hall show in future, in which case is a smaller, cheaper venue more appropriate ?
Would be interesting to see what the visitor numbers were like , to see if somewhere like eg RAF Cosford could cope with the visitor numbers.
I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I do rather suspect things peaked in 2019, and not solely because I graced SMW for the first time: there's an economic downturn that seems to be a-brewin' globally, there've been three solid years of supply chain disruptions, and international travel has been badly knocked about. It will likely be several years at least before the wheel turns anew.
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Just now, TBC said:
Interesting! I posted on their Facebook page on November 5th asking when kits would be shipped to those of us who needed them posted to us. The reply was, "the week after next." That's this week.
I would have thought that whoever it was that replied to me on Facebook would have said something if the limited-run kits weren't complete yet, and there would be a delay.
I believe the owner has had some health issues -- he mentions on the site orders may be delayed up to six weeks, which I only noticed after I'd bought some early Hawk seats.
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This hasn't happened in a while, but I was so excited today after looking through everyone's Telford posts (it sounds melodramatic, but I spent most of covid deathly worried for all of you -- I'm not a young man anymore myself, and our hobby skews older, so both you and I live within one of the many zones of vulnerability -- and that 2019 was the last time I would see any of you alive) that I crept into the grotto and did some more work. I used a bit of sponge to add some dots of Tamiya LP-11 silver, then over that, some more dots of Colourcoats zinc chromate yellow, to try and artlessly simulate chipping down to and through the factory primer coat.
I was less happy with it when I saw it in person, but the addition of a thin sliver of natural light penetrating through the basement window, occluded as it is by leaves I never rake up, seems to have enabled my cell phone camera to finally get a good handle on the colours, and I think the specks look OK now. If anyone knows of some doubtless overpriced-but-designed-for-it sponge for weathering models, please let me know!
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2 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:
The answer is a bit complex to explain here and the whole thing would need "managing" by a handfull of BM members. Possibly worth exploring more with the exec committee for those really keen on the idea?
I've always wanted to have the chance to run something into the ground.
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And of course, after searching fruitlessly for good reference photos, I found this great one of P-40 weathering:
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20 hours ago, The Spadgent said:
as well as stuff I meat up with a few of the Britmodellers.
As always, superlative modelling on your part, Johnny, but also thank you for the photos of all the Britmodellers. It's been three years since I've seen any of them, and I was surprised at how emotional* it made me feel. Well, I am only an American, after all.
* But not tired! Not during working hours.
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12 minutes ago, Fritag said:
Anyways after a good week that encompassed a couple of nights in London, a few nights in Paris and an overnight in Shrewsbury to attend SMW, it was back to work today. And straight into work-avoidance behaviour by mucking about with some Hawk sub-assemblies.
Class! Glamour! ...Telford?
As you're 3D-printing this stuff, I don't suppose you're selling or thinking of selling the STLs anywhere?
As always, your modelling is...well, not an inspiration, in the same way that a baby-oiled bodybuilder is not an inspiration to someone with my physique, but certainly an achievement close to the pinnacle of human endeavour in the field.
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Quite curious myself.
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Here goes nothing.
I broke down and watched some youtube tutorials on this, something I absolutely hate doing -- all information should be imparted by clearly written instructions, possibly also diagrams -- and the technique that I found that worked best was to take a broad flat brush with no thinner on it and just slowly blend the oils into the wing.
I suffer from overexuberance -- something almost nobody who knows me would believe, as I generally have the diffident air of a man recently stunned with a brick. But what this means for the model is that I did a whole lot of this backwards, like attempting some panel line stuff after this, or having already applied pigment weathering, which was all swept away, super genius that I am. This meant there was a lot of duplicative effort as I had to go back over parts.
My goal was to replicate the sort of sun-beaten look the upper surfaces of aircraft in the desert, and you may either praise me or loudly suck upon your teeth as you see fit. I have no pride and no dignity, hit me with your best shot.
In other news, introduced Winston to a piece of classic cinema yesterday:
He found the talky bits with Kenneth More and Dana Wynter pretty thin gruel, but perked up for the Swordfish, which he was quite taken by, and was appropriately pleased when HM battleships King George V and Rodney turned up to fall on Bismarck like ten tons of bricks.
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1 hour ago, Navy Bird said:
Good luck! It's a "Shake, Quake, Ache, and Remake" kit.
Cheers,
Bill
I built one once, long ago, so have some vague memories of the awful wing to fuselage join. Hopefully I've gotten slightly better since then...
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Sold some Forge World stuff, and moments later, came across a 1/72 Airfix TSR.2 for $40, so the choice was obvious.
Also the Daco EE/BAC Lightning book. I have Lightnings on the brain of late, despite not having fond memories of building either the Sword or Airfix single-seaters.
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9 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:
Well, at least they give the dimensions for the pitot tube you have to scratch, so you don't have to divide by 72.
Yeah, that seems like an awful lot of math for someone who's notoriously bad at careful measuring.
Happily, Master makes the L-shaped pitot style used on exported aircraft, since if there's something a proper modeller would do out of hand, the odds are someone in eastern Europe is selling it to lazy, imprecise people like me, so one should be in my hands later this coming week.
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1 minute ago, Stew Dapple said:
As for that pitot tube? What? They couldn't provide a separate cranked one? But they can provide two types of joystick? I'm guessing your suggestion for Special Hobby regarding this involves cramming it full of walnuts?
Possibly a live grenade.
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So, test mule!
On the left side (the starboard wing, puzzle that one out in your minds), we have red, yellow, and blue "Oilbrushers", a product I've never gotten the hang of, blended together. On the right side/port wing, we have yellow, ochre, and a sort of pale blue-grey oils blended with a brush and light use of thinners. Verdicts from the judges?
Anyway, the landing gear is on and weathered.
"Why didn't you clean up the seam, Edward?" Well, life is difficult, and I feel I achieved quite a bit today merely by dint of getting the groceries, thank you very much. And actually, not to toot my own horn -- you'll go blind -- I was quite pleased with how the tires turned out.
I also added the white patch the decal guide shows but in no way explains.
I expect now that this is done, someone will turn up with a contradicting piece of photo evidence, but we come to this arena uncalled etc.
At this point, the aircraft is pretty much done. I don't know if WDAF Kittyhawks carried bombs or drop tanks or nothing in Summer 1942, or which of the several drop tanks they'd use if they did. Any assistance is appreciated.
That aside, all I have to do is the pitot, and for that...
I have some pretty graphic, not to say explicit, suggestions as to what our pals at Special Hobby can do with an instruction like this.
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15 minutes ago, Whofan said:
Yes indeed Adrian, nice to meet you, the enigmatic Ced, Bill, Heather and other BM'ers.
Ced was there?!?
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This year I am acutely missing the Telford show and the UK as a whole.
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4 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:
I read somewhere about Air Graphics Models offering the BPM 1:72 P-8 MRA1 with resin update/conversion bits and RAF stickers...
Cheers,
Bill
Yes, but unfortunately they're only selling them with the kit, and that only at Telford, for now.
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This morning before work I nipped out to the Fort Sheridan cemetery to make my small contribution to the day.
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Ronin Graphics of Australia has come out with RAF decals for the BPK 1/72 P-8 Poseidon, and I (and my wallet, somewhat more apprehensively) have been waiting for this moment.
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12 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:
I've never done it, so I may not be the best person to listen to... but those sound ominously like the words of a man who's about to find he's been much, much too generous with his dots of oils
Careful now...
Cheers,
Stew
Yes...I tested it on a Hurricane I'd built earlier, for this exact reason!
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Hi Andres. The RAF did not use FS numbers, which in any case were not created until 1956, so any FS number assigned would be a modern approximation of what Dark Green was -- and the RAF's Dark Green apparently changed over time, since the 1964 BS381C colour index's dark green may have differed from the wartime one:
@Greenshirt did a nice comparison of dark green acrylic model paints with a Ministry of Aircraft Production colour chip in British Aviation Colours of World War Two on his website here:
https://greenshirt-modeler.blogspot.com/2013/05/raf-dark-green-good-hobby-paint-match.html
I think in general, the RAF Dark Green from @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies superb range of Colourcoats enamels is considered to have the best fidelity to the RAF wartime colour, but he knows far more than I do and may be along shortly.
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Also, having looked into oil dot weathering more, I think my issue is I'm being far, far too parsimonious with my dots of oils.
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22 hours ago, wellsprop said:
A DHC Chipmunk.... 1:1 scale.
::bites stem off pipe::
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On 11/7/2022 at 3:40 PM, jackroadkill said:
you'll know who I am because I'll look like a science teacher on his day off.
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A flash of clean light hope (1/72 J F Edwards Kittyhawk I)
in Work in Progress - Aircraft
Posted
So fun fact: many years ago now, I did some live-in babysitting during the summer for an American patent attorney and her husband, who was a Dutch chemist (they met through work, for where do the seeds of love sprout more readily than during complex litigation?), and he remains, to this day, the only Dutch person I have ever met in the flesh. And quite a bit of the flesh, for, as I assume all continentals do, he would stride (he was immensely tall) through his house in the morning in nothing but a speedo-style pair of briefs. I don't know if he intended it, but it was an amazing way of asserting dominance.