Mr T

I had some spare time this morning while Mrs T was engaged in good works. So a chance to spend a bit of time on the Neptune. I have cut off the fuselage and added the new forward fuselage. There is a choice of new noses for the front turret or glazed nose in the conversion kit. As the conversion kit part lacks the windows, I am going to use the donor kit nose, which also has a minimal bit of internal detail. The Neptune fuselage is quite big. With the MAD boom, a bit longer than a Shackleton Mk2

On my delayed birthday trip, we visited Hartlepool to see HMS Triconmalee. It was well worth it, and we had a look round co-located Museum of Hartlepool. Amongst the exhibits was a part from L34. It was shot down on the night of 27/28th November 1916 by 2nd Lt Pyott of 36 Sqn in a BE2C. Apparently it was bombing Hartlepool when Pyott caught it and after hitting it with incendiary ammunition (Buckingham), the Zeppelin exploded over the sea, there being no survivors. A very interesting story about events that a lot of museums largely ignore (Leeds industrial museum seems to completely ignore aircraft manufacturing in the city)

Some primer on and inevitablymote work with filler etc. The canopy needs to be masked, which I am not looking forward to. However, there will be a bit of break as our rescheduled Martins' 70th birthday trip takes place. Looking forward to seeing HMS Triconmalee.

Decals on and a start to adding bits and pieces. However, there will be a bit of break as our rescheduled Martins' 70th birthday trip takes place. Looking forward to seeing HMS Triconmalee.

I did notice that the kit engines were wrong for British Maryland. Given that the kit engines looked a bit naff anyway, I replaced them with the spare twin row engines out of a MPM Hudson I kit, that I finished about four years ago. Not a brilliant fit, but look better than the kit offering. Shame that they are the same in the Baltimore kit.

I haven't forgotten about this build, just life getting in the way and then a bit of enthusiasm for the kit building, but not the recording part of a GB. Anyway, here we are with a painted and varnished Maryland, awaiting the few decals it will need. It is painted using the Mr Hobby version of Temperate Land Scheme and Sky. It makes the aircraft look a bit different from my mainly Xtracrylix finished British built aircraft, as the Marylands appeared to be painted in the US, and although the colours should be identical, they may have not been. I am not going to be drawn in the long-running debate over US colours for British use. The photo does not match the colour of the model that well due to the lighting and the habit of my phone to brighten everything.

A bit of electroswing and jazz, the first album fro Elle and the Pocket Belles, quite jolly songs in the main https://idol-io.ffm.to/whatsagirltodo

Canopy on, and I am glad I decided to go with the vacform. Still needs a bit of work, but the fit is better than the kit canopy. The exhausts have been shaped and just need some work to for fitting. I have used some Evergreen plastic rod I have in stock. The homemade decals are also in the photo. I tend to print spares as you never can tell with DIY ones.

When I was working, work would keep me awake. I am, and have been for years, a poor sleeper. When we had an earthquake (very rare in the west of goods own county), I pinged awake, but Mrs T slept solidly. Oh and bladder pressure will wake me, partly due to medication.

I have built the Valom kit, I used a mix of kit and Airfix transperiences. It is buildable, the undercarriage was a bit of a tussle, but they may have been me. I messed up the varnishing and intend getting the AZ version when it is reissued, and have another go.

Thanks, they only had them for four years. I am planning on building a machine from 36 Sqn at Topcliffe in North Yorkshire. Seems a distance from the sea compared to most Coastal Command bases. Topcliffe is not far from Baldersby St James where Mrs T comes from. The RAF Neptunes kept their USN style Sea Blue Gloss colour scheme, although I think one might have painted in a grey, could be imagining this though.

Thanks guys, didn't get the canopy on as I had a rethink. A bit more work on the vacform canopy and it will fit, at least no worse than the kit one. It will add more time to the build, but I will think it will look better. Hopefully some colour on before the end of the week.

I think that is where I saw it originally, that or Airfix Magazine. Edit, Apparently it was in Scale Aircraft Modelling in 1980, so I must have somewhere.

Another day, another Group Build. This is a project that has been floating around in my mind since the early 1980s. Due to a variety of reasons, not least, missing out on the Falcon conversion kit. The kit has been in the stash, with the odd glance at it from time to time. When I first returned to SMW in 2017, I picked up the Neptune conversion. This GB is a perfect excuse to get on with the model after some 44 years mulling it over. Having a decal sheet with the right markings also helps. The RAF came to use the Neptune as a result of a shortage of MR type aircraft postwar. The Lease-Lend Liberators and Fortresses would have to be returned or bought, which due to the lack of dollar reserves was not going to happen. Lancasters, of which there were plenty were converted as a stop gap, but clearly something better was required As early as 1945, Avro were looking at a Maritime Lincoln, this morphed into the Shackleton, but took more time to enter service than anticipated. In the wake of the outbreak of the Korean War and the growth of the Soviet Submarine fleet, 52 P2V-5 Neptunes were supplied to the RAF. They first entered service in April 1952 and remained as MR aircraft until June 1956 when replaced by Shackletons. The aircraft were returned to the US, and saw further service with a variety of air arms, including Brazil and Argentina. Argentina's aircraft survived until 1982 when they were removed from service as they were literally worn out. the base kit for this project is a fairly old kit that dates from 1972. It is fairly basic and represents the later P2V-7 variant. However, my kit is flash free and well moulded. Surface detail is very fine raised lines and some of the finest rivet detail I have ever seen, and I am going to leave well alone. the Blackbird resin set looks complete to build the earlier MR1 and is all resin. The sole bit of PE I intend using is an Eduard set to furnish the very sparse kit cockpit. Looking forward to doing this kit, it also has the advantage of being one colour

My build of the Master has made more progress this week. The tail surfaces and engine have been fitted and a coat of primer has been applied to see what more work was needed on the airframe. I was pleasantly surprised by the small amount of cleaning up was required. My original plan to use a vacform replacement canopy has fallen by the wayside owing to my ineptitude. I will use the kit supplied canopy, which has polished up pretty well. Decals for the codes and serials have been printed off. I could have made them up from Modeldecal sheets, but the font isn't quite right to match the photo I have. A picture next time when the varnish has fully dried, and the sheet is safe to handle. My plan is to add the canopy and the air intake tonight. The long Martinet type exhausts pipes also need fabricating, I have a cunning plan which I think will work

The Mosquito they used for the cockpit shots and as a model for CGI was the MkII that is now at East Kirby (was at Elvington).

I have a vague memory of the silver dope at one time being called AMDPA and the tropical version being AMPDA(T), can't remember the difference and I am not near my references. Is the Vimy box subject go the vagaries of 1970s cheap colour printing?

The Wallace was an all metal structure, including the panels from the cockpit forward. Some of pieces that formed the stringers to shape the rear fuselage top may have been wood. The airframe was linen covered which had a top coat of dope with aluminium powder in it. This was to reflect UV rays that could degrade the fabric. The undercoat for this was a reddish brown dope.

Looks interesting, why did the green painted Danish fighters look so scruffy? I think I saw one, a Draken, that looked neat. The Hasegawa kit, despite its age, is still a very nice kit. I built a Canadian one for a GB a couple of years back.

A couple of things I have noticed about my buying habits, is that virtually all my kit buying is replacement stuff for things that have been in the stash, eg my Novo FD2 which cost me about 30p in 1978 has been replaced by the much more expensive, but far superior Dora Wings kit, and which is far more likely to be built for a number of reasons. Likewise I have bough conversion or improvement kits for stuff that has been sat around, with a view to convert etc. An example will shortly appear in the Baby Boomers GB.

The shot glasses are available from Amazon, quite cheap as well. I use medicine pots l, they are more like a hard polythene than plastic, and have a scale on the side, as they were used for liquids. I bought two lots of hundred from Ed Models a long while ago and still on the first pack. Because I use acrylics, they get washed out for re use.

As Mrs T has her good deeds day on a Thursday, and has the car, I took myself over to Halifax, which isn't bad and cheap for me as an older person. A worthwhile trip as I bought some paints etc, and picked up my pre-ordered Special Hobby Meteor TT20 and joined the Dora Wings Fairey FD2 owners club. Even gghe weather was decent.

Pricing does seem to be an issue with Hobbycraft. I have noticed, for example, that Miliput is sometimes about a pound or so more than other places. It does rather put me off, especially as they seem to kill off any smaller craft shops in an area, it certainly seems to have happened around us.

Looking at Phantom Big Stus kit, it doesn't seem to have much in the way of shrinkage. I think my two were bought at the same time in WH Smith in Sheffield when they were selling a load of Frog stuff cheap just when Frogs owners got out the kit game. It may be that they were less fussy about how stuff came out by that time. I don't remember the reviews commenting on shrinkage etc. Just unlikely I guess.

The Meteor is looking good. I have built two over the years, one in about 1980, and one about 10 years later. Both were original Frog moulds and were terrible, sink marks galore and the fit of some parts were not good. The undercarriage wasn't stunning either but I see that is a problem you have neatly solved. The Vallejo Air Aluminum is good stuff, as is the Silver.