Mr T

The other Beryl engine ended up in Donald Campbells ill fated Bluebird that he died in on Coniston Water. Not sure what happened to it when the wreck was raised.

A very nice build, I saw the remaining airframe at Solent Sky in Southampton last year. Imposing looking in real life. The kit is in my stash and tempted to get it out.

I remember talking to my dad about small drill bits. He worked in light engineering all his life and must have drilled millions of holes. Small drill bits in metal didn't last long for all sorts of reason, but largely because they were so small and relatively fragile despite whatever they were made out off. He reckoned that the really small bits in plastic suffered because plastics are relatively good insulators of heat, and so the area around the bit heats up. In some cases the plastic will soften and foul the bit, thus making it more likely to break. Also plastics may not be a consistent density. A lot of industrial cutting and drilling uses/used cutting oils or other lubricants to ease the process, and also cool the work piece I have long since accepted that small 0.3mm/80 drill bits will not survive long. He also hated milling and cutting aluminium for reasons I am not sure of.

Looking at my stash there are a lot of kits that must demonstrate I have a masochistic streak. Over the last couple of years there have been a few kits that are not exactly 'shake and bake'. Vacform Morane P, resin Andover, AMP AW52 and X20, and Mach2 Argosy spring to mind. Still for my next GB, the Heller Magister and Allouette III, and the Academy A37 Dragonfly are probably going to be a bit more straight forward. At 70 with an adult lifetime of building aircraft kits, I am now in the happy position of dealing with most kits if subjects I like the look of. Mind you, Unicraft kits are something I have avoided so far.

I bought the kit when it came out for that reason as they don't seem to be around long. Basically in 1/72nd scale the AMP/Mikro Mir kits seem to be the only game in town at present. Airfix could do with revisiting the Canberra, their efforts a few years back were a little clumsy surface detail wise. The B6 was vandalised into the B57 with no prospect of it being a proper Canberra ever again.

This is a placeholder for my next entry to this Group Build. I probably will not progress very far with this kit until the Neptune is nearer the finishing line. The Canberra must be one of the most iconic British aircraft of the Baby Boomer years. The Canberra was destined to serve much longer in front line roles than originally intended, and there was a joke in the late sixties that MRCA stood for 'Must Refurbish Canberra Again'. Well, not only has the Canberra gone from British skies, the Tornado has as well, and my knees tell me I am not as young as I used to be. The AMP kit is a revision of the original S&M kit with the correct main wheels and improved wing tip tanks. It lacks much in the way of location aids. As well as injection moulds parts, it has some etch brass, and a set of canopy masks that are not referred to in the instructions. The decals are the same as in the S&M kit right down to the logo, I suspect they may be leftovers. I plan on building mine in the mid-fifties Light Slate Grey, Medium Sea Grey and PRU Blue scheme.

A quick update, to bring a couple of pictures. The airframe is together and joints filled, until such time as some primer goes on and reveals my utter inadequacy in eliminating join lines. The next stage will be adding the canopy and the searchlight cover. The engine nacelles will also go on the wings. The problem with them is that the undercarriage is supposed to be added as well. Looking at the instructions, at least some of the struts are going to have to be added before the nacelles halves are stuck together. The base of the gun turret is also shown. There are no instructions as to how to secure it to the fuselage. There was a prominent ring around it, but it didn't look to be a good fit inside the fuselage. I think it is going to be a case of making it up as I go along, which sums up my modelling.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. I have probably stashed it somewhere 'safe' as I knew I wanted it for the GB. If it turns up I can build the stashed one and sell on the one I have just bought.

A box was left outside the back door while we out for a celebration lunch. It contained an Academy 1/72nd scale A37 Dragonfly. I am sure I have the kit, but couldn't find it in the stash. I already have the SBS upgrade kit and some old Microscale decals for a Salvadorean aircraft. It is for a GB.

Getting the fuselage together and cleaned up has transformed the project. So much so that the wings and tailplanes went on last night, and as it was Mrs T's choir night, an early tea meant more modelling time. I have built up the the searchlight stuff on one of the wing pods, it was not easy as there is nothing to hang things on to. The resin is a thick liquid, the box has a small cup and spatula made out of Teflon? I trialled a bit to seal a gap and it seemed to work alright. Test fitting g the canopy has revealed gaps that no amount of fettling can deal with, so the resin could be a good choice, or it cbould be a complete disaster.

Still ploughing through my Christmas books, and currently reading 'Lost Realms, Histories of Britain from Romans to the Vikings' by Thomas Williams. It is about some of the kingdoms that emerged in Britain in the fifth century and later vanished. He doesn't describe the history of the big players like Mercia, Norththumbria and the West Saxons, but concentrates on the kingdoms that arose after Roman government collapsed, and were then swallowed up as their neighbours grew more powerful. Living where one of the more shadowy kingdoms existed (Elmet), it is an interesting read, especially when you think that if you were in West Yorkshire at that time, most people would be speaking the ancestor of Welsh.

Crikey, that puts things in perspective. Given that the Scout dates from 1965, and I understand has some issues. I still have the old C Scale improvement kit for the Scout that has the SS11 missiles, so a saving there as the white meftal bits were really well cast.

At last, I seem to be making some progress on the Neptune. The fuselage is together, It was a bit of a struggle and was spread over a couple of days. I joined the plastic halves of the fuselage, and then let them set before attempting to line the resin front fuselage up. The resin is a bit flexible until firmly attached to something else. It has all come together pretty well in the end, although I think due to the shape and fit of the cockpit interior, one fuselage half is not quite the same shape as the other. Annoyingly, some of the nose weights are loose. They are well wedged behind other weights, but the fuselage rattles when it is handled. Other bits and pieces sorted, and so the wings etc. can probably go on today. The canopy was a poor fit. I think because the resin distorted when it came out the mould. I have used some hot water and held my breath to correct it, and have a plan to use some UV activated resin to attach it to the fuselage. I do not want to risk Cyano, even if is dipped in Klear or similar. The fit isn't perfect, and resin will dry clear and hard. I have used a similar technique to get a better fit and shape to a Cessna O2 I made a while back.

Unusually for us, we have had a bit of a splurge the last week or so. So: 3D printed seats etc, and an undercarriage for the 1/72nd scale Airfix Javelin and some Canberra intake bullets and compressor faces from TeeEll of this parish. He also added a Fraser-Nash turret for the Demon. They are all exquisite and were well-packed. Some UV cured resin and UV torch for a couple of projects. Had a go with it at quite impressed with the results. A new Microwave oven to replace our old El cheapo one that died this morning. We had a £50 Argos voucher that took most of the sting out of it. A new trailcam, our original one, has been acting erratically for a while and Mrs T is a participant in a major study by Reading University into urban hedgehogs. Bought this before the microwave packed up. Finally, while doing the shopping in Sainsbury's, a new Key Publishing bookazine on the Canberra fell into our trolley. Normally I don't bother with these, but it has some good detail stuff. Also, the newest AMP B.2 is the next kit to do.

Very nice Adrian, a lot of scratch built detail gone into the model, and it really does make it outstanding. Still thinking about a Wallace II.

Given the South of the Border GB and the use by El Salvador of the BT67, that is sooo tempting.

There was an attempt in the late 1960's to stay on British Summer Time all the year road. It didn't survive the 1970 General Election, one of the promises of the incoming government being to restore time change (a lot of lobbying from farmers I seem to recall, especially in the north of Britain).

A belated Easter greetings to all. Useless fact for the day (and no, not an April Fool), in the late 1920s, the British Government of the day passed an Act that would have fixed the date of the Easter Bank Holiday. The only problem was that the various churches would have to agreed to it. As this was not forthcoming, it never went anywhere.

I am not a great drinker of alcohol (keep to the recommended units minus a bit, first staff nurse job was on ward with a liver speciality). Having said that I do enjoy Douro Valley whites when I can find them, and our home made flavoured gins. Currently we have Sloe gin and Seville Orange gin maturing in the cellar.

'Rocket' was rebuilt at least once. The yellow ones we see as reproductions are near to the original Rainhill trials loco. However, locos like Rocket had quiet short lives in that form, the pistons were lowered to a more horizontal position as that gave better riding and reduced lateral (swaying) movement of the loco, and the original Rocket in this form. By 1830 Stephenson was producing his 'Planet' loco, which looked much more like what we imagine to be steam locomotives.

Now listed at Hannants.

Now showing up on the Hannants site, not cheap

We have returned from a very pleasant break where we caught up with both sides of the family, amongst other things. Unexpectedly, when we met up with a big chunk of Mrs T's family in Windsor yesterday, we were able to go round the Castle grounds and into St George's Chapel for free. An interesting afternoon after a good lunch. Now I am back, found a bit of time this afternoon after mowing the lawn to position the cockpit interior into a fuselage half. It has been secured with a thick cyano, and is being left to set before I do anything else. The new resin front fuselage is quite flexible, and I think it is going to be 'fun' to fit together. There will still be some openings to add weights, as I really do not want to add too much before the fuselage goes together. Tonight I plan on doing a couple of other bits like building the new resin wing tip pods.

There always seem to be birds 'out of place' At our local RSPB reserve (St Aidens) had a Glossy Ibis before Christmas and Spoonbills have come back again. Yesterday two Cranes were spotted flying over the site. Egrets are now so common they are seen in the River Aire near the centre of Leeds. St Aidens is a good place to visit, it was created from an open cast mine (and still has a large drag line excavator on site). It's main function is to act as reservoir for water from the Aire to help prevent flooding, but it is home to a lot of different species including Bitterns.

Gosh, I impressed by the 'to do' list. I just make it up as I go along.