Rabbit Leader

So is anyone close? A Yes / No answer will suffice.

Great grab @Wings unlevel, it’s amazing what pops up in one’s Facebook feed, those algorithms are certainly spooky at times! Cheers and thanks.. Dave

And we’re off! Some excellent timing (not working, wife’s gone to see her Mum and it’s too hot to do any gardening) has allowed me two solid days of Salty Gannet modelling. Nothing major so far, however it’s allowed me some good time to examine the parts, cut, file, glue and assess what I’m up for with this Revell kit. First impressions are a little mixed. The plastic is nice to work with, however I’ve found that a number of parts need some work to make things fit. I’ve read some online reviews and there’s a consistent theme of fit issues around the bomb bay and closing up the rear fuselage. Further inspection inside the fuselage found a series of raised ridges where the bomb bay roof mates with the lower fuselage and some guided slots to help line things up, problem is I couldn’t get any of these ‘guides’ to line up! I’ve now sanded most of these down and it all seems to fit a little better. I’ve had to deviate from some of the instructions steps to aid better parts figment and have assembled the wings together after removing a small number of raised ejector pin marks along the trailing edge. Speaking of which, there’s a few too many ejector pin marks that do mar the kit, but thankfully most of these can be easily removed. The ones inside the main wheel well are not so easy, so I hid them behind some round and square pieces of plastic card to resemble typical but ‘fictitious’ wheel well lumps and bumps. Overall it’s really not a bad kit and to be truthful quite a nice package, but it does need a little care which should force me to think twice before applying cement anywhere. I’ve got five solid days of work to get through so will try to chip away at it if I’m not too tired in the evenings. Cheers.. Dave.

Nice start and I can happily say it’s quite a nice kit to put together where you will have many smiling moments. One tip I can offer concerns the pieces that make up the engine cowling. if you follow the instructions you will end up with the two cowling halves being smaller in diameter than the nose ring. I decided to glue the two halves to the nose ring first, then made plastic card shins to fill in the two side gaps. When sanding, you will lose some nice cowling hinge clip detail, but these are easy to reinstate with plastic strip. Cheers and good luck.. Dave

Nice subject matter. I recall thinking about doing similar models when I was reading Dahl’s books to my young kids, they’re now 21 and 17, although it only feels like it was a couple of years ago!! Looking forward to seeing the Gladiator when you get there. Cheers and well modelled.. Dave

Well I’m hoping that particular designer is still on the Hornby payroll and for the last 24 months, what he ‘thought’ was a new tooled B-24 Liberator, actually turns out to have an uncanny Avro Lincoln-like resemblance! Cheers.. Dave

Nice sprue shots Mark.. the Spit actually looks better than I thought, whilst the Wildcat just oozes class. These should both be great. Cheers.. Dave

Having a number of stashed Harrier kits as well has not being as clued up on pylons as I’d like to be… I’d be interested to know what kit this relates too. I’m sure I’ll do appropriate research when these kits eventually get built, however I also kinda think I take things like kit pylons for granted a little. Cheers.. Dave

Can I ask how do you know that? Is this fact buried somewhere in the 27 million words that make up the weekly ‘Workbench’ blog? Cheers.. Dave

Conversion… what conversion?? How good does that nose blend into the cabin parts. That honestly looks completely new tooled OOB in every aspect. Marvellous job and beautifully executed. Cheers and well modelled.. Dave

A PR.34 Mosqutio sounds like a good possibility and if Airfix are kind enough, how about throwing in a proper rear bulged bomb bay fairing (free of charge) to correct the Target Tug scanned fairing included in the original boxing.

It’s a very common thread during the classic kit GB’s, although I must admit the last Matchbox GB Build list thread almost killed me trying to keep it up to date! It can also have negative effects on the hosts build time, so I’d only recommend doing one if you are - a). single b). jobless c). have no social life d). one of your children doesn’t do rowing! Cheers.. Dave (inaugural GB Build list host).

Here we go…. If it’s got wings, I’ll most probably buy it! Let the rumour mill begin (again). I’ll go with a 1/32 F-86 Sabre (no doubt another 6-3 hard wing - F). Cheers.. Dave

As it’s just about to turn 06:00am on the 6th of January over here, ‘technically’ I should be able to make a start in just 18 hours time! Sometimes there’s benefits for being at the wrong end of the time zone, but don’t get me started about the silly start times for the majority of the Formula 1 season! Anyway, its a good thing that ‘Beer O’Clock’ always seems to occur at a convenient time for us Aussies! Good luck everyone, see you at kick-off. Cheers.. Dave

So good to see this kit and subject being built up here. A French Hellcat was one of my possible choices, however as there were huge doubts I’d be able to build four kits in this GB, I elected to park the idea for ‘possibly’ later on. Now that you’re about to tackle it, I can see this subject being built up by someone else. I’ll follow this thread and be keen to hear / see how those decals behave. Cheers and best of luck.. Dave.

yeah… we’ll all pick one. Who doesn’t like a poll?

Precice, accurate and wonderfully photographed. I have to say, although Airfix have blessed us with a wonderful kit, it still takes lots of skill, care and attention to get it looking this good. Well done Heather. The WIP has been a joy to follow and thats another masterful 1940 subject successfully and beautifully completed. Cheers and very well modelled.. Dave

Although the RAF boxing of the 2022 released Bucc is most welcomed, I doubt Airfix will use this mould as a flagship 2023 announcement. Such status must surely be preserved for an entirely new kit, the likes of which we have not seen before. 90% of the Bucc’s sprues have already been shown, so the only new items for them to highlight would be a dedicated RAF parts sprue and three or so decal choices. I’m convinced we are in for something entirely different and like the (lack of) Black Buck Vulcan in the follow up year, possibly no RAF Bucc until 2024. Cheers.. Dave

Well done Steve, that's a great year's effort and the Canuck would have to be my favourite among that lot too. Cheers and well modelled. Dave

Looks great Heather and although I’ll never claim that mine is 100% accurate, I modelled L4461 in the ‘B’ scheme as well. As you’re doing L4465 (another four down the line) that would also suggest that the ‘B’ scheme pattern is more than likely on ‘65 too! Your comments about a ‘Brain aching’ session made me laugh and reminded me of the fun I had doing just the same exercise. I think I might have transposed an image around on the trusty iPad, not sure the memory is dimming a bit, but I do remember how frustrating it was that most common images only show the ‘A’ scheme. Cheers.. Dave

That would have to be even more riskier than the Swift… one Rotodyne built, one scheme, no export reboxing potential, limited market (one would think?). No, I don’t think new tool, however the old tool with new decals would move off the shelves and be a lot less riskier than investing in a new tool. Cheers.. Dave

I didn’t know you had a BM thread going as well Brad. It’s all coming along most beautifully mate, nicely done. Cheers.. Dave (DFK).

That’s nice of you to say, however the kit is that good you’ll just want to keep going. Just line up all the engine parts really well before applying cement. @Heather Kay is doing a great job of one at the moment too, so check that one out as well. Best of luck. Cheers.. Dave

… all good Steve, it’s been a while but no doubt other priorities have taken the time away. Cheers.. Dave

It’s most certainly 2023 down here Heather, so Happy New Year Heather!! Must say, those silhouette markings look fantastic and must open up all sorts of exciting potential modelling opportunities. Cheers and all the best.. Dave