depressed lemur

A little bit of quiet time, some small reflections and a bit of Simply Red in the background. A few weeks appear to have passed yet I have been lax in the old posting front. Real life again gets in the way of modelling but I have actually been doing some in the background so it is probably time to show where I am now up to. As you may recall, I had just about finished up the gun bay as far as I thought suitable (I may review this later) and was heading to the cockpit, starting with the seat. Airfix provide what can only be described as a luxurious armchair for the pilot to sit in with ample room to stretch out. where as the actual seat looks a little less basic and certainly more uncomfortable. So I thought that I would have a go at seeing if I can improve this as a first attempt at seat replacement. The starting point was to use the pilot as a gauge to work out some dimensions and then create a frame from 10 thou card and brass rod. No, he is not short legged, they are pointing outwards almost flat with the cutest little feet ever to grace aviation. He is also a little blurred. Anyway, to the left is the back frame for the seat designed to be "about the right size". Next up was to give him somewhere to sit, again from 10 thou card. It looked OK, but needed more work. So using various card stock, hole punches, sweat and tears I came up with this which should look OK under a bit of paint. OK, next up the cockpit which is approximately the right shape, but too wide (to accommodate the armchair) and sadly lacking in the rear bulkhead area so some work needed there. And that brings you up to date. Next up, instruments and switches. Oh, and the target is to get this onto the Bolton club stand for Telford. Lemur out for now.

Hello again everyone, I know that I have been a bit slow on posting but I have actually done some work on the Star, just not had the time to post it up. When we last looked at this, the nose wheel bay had been started and was fairly Ok. The purists may point out that there should be a space for the wheel, but this is a bit beyond what I can do and unless someone pick the model up at a show (thus potentially losing fingers) no-one is going to see it, so meh. Working up, the roof of the wheel bay becomes the floor of the weapons bay. There is a fairly sizable avionics section at the rear bulkhead so I have started there. It is a bit difficult to see but there are a couple of shelves added as well. Whilst I was working out how to replicate the bay in a bit more detail I turned my attention to the guns. Due to the layout, there is one 50 cal. right at the front of the open bay, with another directly underneath. Beyond that, there is little to see, even in the real thing. Therefore I decided to see if I could knock up a reasonable gun shape using plastic rod, sheet and some brass tubing. I was quite happy with the end result, and as the bay area will not be in bright light it will probably pass muster. After smugly sitting back I realised that this would stand out compared to the rest of the nose so I had no choice but to cut out the existing moulded on guns and replace them all with brass rod. They should look a bit better once painted.. Speaking of which, I checked my references and came up with an interior colour for the gun bay and squirted this around. This improves the look of my bay door at least. and when I added a bit more detail to the bay area it looks a bit like this. with an in-situ test fit It might not be perfect, but looks busy enough. Next up will be the cockpit as the seat is far too wide resulting in poorly scaled side walls. Which means I will have to make a seat first. Oh well, I only have myself to blame. Lemur out.

Today I moved away from the engine and went to the front bit. I thought that I would have a go at opening the gun bay. This is rather distinctive for these aircraft but at least there is not a huge amount of detail needed to look busy enough. The starting point is to hack away the bit I don't need, which I did using a combination of scalpel and scriber to gently dig into the rather thick plastic. Eventually I ended up with this. Once the hole is made I can see how thick the plastic is in the area. On the whole, not too bad. Next up I made a new door. This was done with two plunge moulded doors using the removed piece as a form. One was left as created while the other was hacked about to create lightning holes. Once laminated together the overall effect is satisfactory to me. Putting the fuselage halves together and adding the kit nose bay roof there was an unsightly interference which will affect the gun bay so it cannot be used without modification. Or, alternatively I can knock up a replacement part. The gear roof looks good enough so I will need to look at the rest of the bay. Thanks for looking Lemur.

This has worked out better than I had expected. So just needs a little bit of tidying up and it will pass muster as an engine. Any thoughts on improvements I can make to this?

There is not much to report today I have only had an hour or two at the bench, most of which has been spent going round in circles. which, when added to a couple of other bits, looks a bit like this I don't even know if I will be using this but it is an interesting exercise. More to follow. Lemur.

Real life rarely gets in the way in a good way which is why we scale it down 1 to 72 , but as long as I can see, walk and count to 10 (20 if I take my shoes off) then I am happy. I have spent a very fruitful afternoon making a start on this, and by making a start I mean not doing anything to the kit parts. Instead I have made up some flaps to be dropped as and when. Yes, the ribs may look a bit on the wide side but it is the nearest I could do with plastic sheet and dodgy eyesight. I am sure that they will look OK under a coat of primer and aluminium. And yes, I do know that a pilot will only park his jet with the flaps retracted but I did find one photo showing these down so that is what I am going with. Start has been made.

Hello peeps, I know that I have been very quiet lately and my last build of the old Airfix Gazelle was interrupted somewhat with personal family issues. The rest of this year has not got much better, but I have finally managed to get some time onto the workbench. I have decided to go back to the 70's and try another Classic, one which I did not buy as a kid as the artwork didn't inspire me as much as say the Mosquito. That said, it is well detailed for its time and the sprues are remarkably free from flash which is a bonus. There are less than 60 parts but I have plans to see about increasing this number using spares and plastic sheet. How hard can it be?

Airfix Gazelle starter kit. Modified with extensive use of plastic card, sprue, cocktail sticks and diswasher parts. Thaks for looking Link to build

This has been a bit of an epic journey for me. Normally I build out of the box barring decal sheets for interesting schemes. I even avoid weathering as too difficult. However this started because I was told it was a tail sitter and needed to be glued to a base. This prompted the idea of making new seats with lead to bring this down and one thing led to another. It has taken a while and seems to have garnered some interest and the likes and comments from you guys have kept me going. So here she is, finished, done, ended. It has been a challenge and I had to learn new ways of working but it was worth it. I will get some better pics in the rfi. Thanks for following through this. Lemur finally out.

Getting close to the finish now. The blades have been painted and the anti corrosion strip added. The hub protector was made up from a couple of pieces of plastic card. Which was added to the rotor. A splash of paint, including the colours used during dismantling just about finishes this area. Moving on to the back end again i decided that the kit's solid beacons were no good so, Stretch out some of the clear sprue and sand to shape gives a better look. I also made new blade aerials out of card. This is close to the end. Thanks for looking Lemur.

I think that I have just about finished the rotor now. The last bit of detail has been added to the rotor hub to finish of the links I see in my references. And thanks to Speedy pointing it out, the missing trim tabs are on the blades. Hopefully I will not see something else to add and can get this into paint. Thanks for looking.

Thanks Speedy. I will be adding the tab and tip tie down lug. The photos I have show the anti corrosion strip so this will be easy to replicate. There is also a small white cap on top of the rotor mast with weatherguard printed on it which looks to be a small removable item so I will probably add this as well.

I have decided to use the kit parts for the rotor as they are not too far from the right shape, just needing to be rounded to look the part below is a before and after of the blade foot to show what I mean. With the blade rounded, the rotor head root needed to match, so.. Next up was to fix the rotor to the body. First up was to bury a hollie tube into the main body. This was done by super gluing a hollow tube into the body and ensuring it was vertical. I have made the rotor as a simple slot in to allow removal during transport. Below is the test fit of the completed rotor unit. Just needs to be painted now. This may actually cross the finish line.

Some more very fiddly bits have been occupying me this afternoon as I finish up the rotor head. On the right is the kit part. The plastic parts have been glued to the brass using superglue which I hope will be strong enough. Hopefully this will get painted and look better than it does at the moment. All I have to do then is decide what I am going to do with the rotor and stick the doors on. Thanks for looking, Lemur out.

Only if you take the cheese and pickle off first.

I finally got some spare time again and have moved on with the build. First up, I realised that I had left off the Fenestron shaft so that was a quick fix. Next up was to decide what to do with the spinny thing on top. The kit part is the wrong shape as the base should be a round not flat shape. I tried to improve it with filler but it was not very good so I decided to see if I could do anything. First up some brass tubing and a bit of solder I tried to make the thing myself. The piece on the left will be inserted into the main body and act as a holder for the bit in the middle which is the main rotor shaft. I then made the bit that links the shaft to the blade adjustment rods. Putting it in place it seems to look right so I will carry on with this to see if it pans out. Thanks for looking

I decided that I couldn't face too much of HM today, not out of disrespect but it brings home the fact that I will be doing the same thing on Wednesday when I say my last goodbye to my dad. Therefore I spent some me time listening to quiet music and progressing the Gazelle on its own journey. Out of the paint shop, the decals were applied before settling with micro sol. During the afternoon I applied the flat coat to bring it all together before removing the masking. And I couldn't resist a bit of close up of the front end I just need to do some detail painting before looking at replicating the fan bit on top. Lemur out.

Further work has taken place on the Gazelle. I have almost been at the point of jacking this in as I have been feeling a little off sorts following the recent passing of my dad. A lot of my time has been taken up trying to focus on work while arranging a funeral amongst other things. Of an evening I looked at the kit and thought what is the point but remembered my dad told me to finish what I start. So I will plough on regardless and hope I don't ruin this. Anyway, today she has been in the paint booth for some well needed colour. First up, light aircraft grey. Then a wrap around green pattern. I also decided to look at the tail rotor shaft. The one in the kit is a shapeless blob so I knocked one up from 15amp fuse wire whilst making the support bearings from 10 thou card. And this is what they look like in place. I hope to make some more progress in the next few days. Lemur out

I have realised that following the thinning out of the door openings, the front right door no longer fits so I need to make a new one. Spent quite a while plunge moulding and adding framing to make the new door but unfortunately there was a bit of a cock up in that I managed to get glue on the clear parts so this is scrap now. I think that I will take a break and start a new one tomorrow. Lemur out

Good idea, Sir. I will give it a light scraping before paint. Lemur

I think that I have just about done with fettling with this and decided it is time to start putting some bits together. First up was putting in the cockpit into the fuselage and finding out that despite checking and rechecking time and again the damn thing still didn't snick smoothly into place. Still, nothing that a little fettling couldn't beat. Having managed to make it fit i tidied up the paintwork before adding the roof and nose. And it's starting to look like a helicopter. So far 9 kit parts have been used. Now I need to get some masking done add the tail and skids before moving to paint. I hope I don't get distracted and find something else to change. Thanks for looking. Lemur.

Next up is the engine inlet. The kit provides only an approximation of the engine intake which looks average. A look at the real thing shows that this is a space covered by a shaped mesh so it needs to be improved using the filter sheet I bought from Amazon. A little amount of fettling was needed but it looks ok. I also added a drive shaft from a cocktail stick, because I am tight. When it is all in place I am happy with the result. Thanks for looking.

The Fenestron has now been completed to my satisfaction. With the introduction of some representation of the gearbox and blade adjuster. A little bit of paint helps a lot as well. Now to put the fuselage together and see about making a helicopter. Thanks for looking.

I still have not gotten off the fence yet for 3d printers. Part of me thinks of it as cheating but most of me thinks that's just because I haven't got one 😆😅. I agree though, this was a right pain to knock together.

It has been a while but I thought I would press on regardless. I was about to close up the fuselage when my eye fell on the tail rotor and I was sorely dismayed. The kit parts are thick, pudgy and look out of place compared to the other changes which have taken place. I also cam across some photos showing the internals of the mount so, how hard can it be? The correct answer is, very. I started out by creating a tube from 5 thou card to represent the hub before making thirteen small blades to attach to it. Whittling it down to the correct TLAR size I added a plate to the frond and stuck on the hub cover from the kit (the 5th kit part now used). After hacking away the mounting on the kit a trial fit shows that it looks ok ish. I will need to add a representation of the gearbox and drive shaft to complete. Then it can be put to one side for the final assembly. Thanks for looking Lemur.