Mr T

Looks like a good build. I was watching 'Strategic Air Command' the other evening on the Channel 4 app, it still available for a few days. A real period piece. Didn't the brakes squeak a lot on the B36. My Neptune has a similar arrangement with the wing tabs, and the same alignment issues, although they are a bit chunkier.

More than four years I reckon. My York was built four years ago after being bought at SMW in 2019, and been waiting for the Mikro Mir for a while then.

Azur Martin Maryland I AR705, Malta, November 1940 This apparently is the aircraft that carried out the reconnaissance prior to the attack on Taranto by the Fleet Air Arm. The kit is from Azur. Looks good in the box, but requires some care and extra work to deal with the bits Azur missed. WIP is here Thanks to veppelt68 and 81er for running this GB and to Enzo for keeping an eye on things.

The Maryland is finished and going into the Gallery

Looks promising, wrong scale for me, but a nice change for 1/48th scale modellers. It looks as if the cylinders are separate and have to added to the crankcase and that the Williamson camera gun sometimes seen on photos is present. I hope people don't think it is a machine gun.

We are looking for something fairly new, about 2 or 3 years old. We tend to buy a car and keep it for a while. A Toyota is near the top. I would like a Yaris Cross, but even secondhand they are expensive. Interestingly enough, the newer Yaris and Honda Jazz have only been offered as hybrids for the last two years.

Not modelling related, as I am trying to be a good boy. We have bought a new hedge trimmer. Our previous one was about twenty years old, and when I picked up towards the end of last year, it literally fell to pieces. The plastic case lost structural integrity. The new one was 25% off in Argos and Mrs T had a gift card from when she retired that she keeps forgetting about. What a gift card is not going to go very far with is a new car. We have started looking as we used to have two. An old C3 Picasso, that made to Alison retirement. It had a huge long list of advisory points on its last MOT and was going to be expensive to fix. The Citigo I have, we like, but is getting on a bit and starting to cost. We want something a bit bigger and a bit more go.

This is going to be the last post in the build thread for the Master. I have now added the undercarriage and exhausts. The longer Martinet style pipes that seem to be typical of the later Master II's were fabricated from some plastic rod that has been cut to allow for bending to fit the fuselage. The wheels have come from the spares box, but obviously to belong to an early Spitfire. They look so much better than the kit efforts. Some other new bits have also been added. The pitot head under the port wing has been built from nickel-silver wire and plastic strip, and the support rods for the exhaust ring have come from the same material. Some paint touch up will be required and then a final coat of varnish.

A way around the issue of panel lines in different materials I have used is to spray some primer beforehand. I use the stuff from Halfords, which us getting expensive, and once really dry it seems to hold things together a bit better.

Firmed up my entries for this GB, largely on ease of colour schemes and what is in the stash A37 Dragonfly, Academy kit with some interior goodies. Fouga Magister, the Heller kit, ok not good as SH, but been in the stash for more than a quarter of a century, just needs the panel lines rescribing. Allouette III, again the Heller kit.and again been in the stash, it looks a bit basic. There is Brengun PE set for it that looks straightforward. Hannants are out of stock, but I have watch listed it, hopefully back in stock in time for the GB.

Glad things are settling. Rheumatoid Arthritis is nasty, and in my nursing days I used to feel very sorry for the patients I used to see with it. Mrs T always reckoned it was one of the more challenging conditions to manage, no comfort to you I know. I am developing a bit of osteoarthritis in my knees (probably work related), and although it sometimes is not fun. Slightly OT, my mum was a regular at BGH for various things, although her last admission was to the cottage hospital in Kelso.

Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pies still exist, as do other varieties by the same firm. My dad was particularly partial to them when you could get a smaller sized one. Nowadays being retired and all that, if we have steak pie, I make one.

The Xtracyrlix trainer yellow is bit more orange than the Humbrol. I know what you mean about consistency, I use Xtracyrlix for British built aircraft in Temperate Land Scheme, and Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Color for US built aircraft.

I think it may be due to the font only having upper case letters. Logically you could assume that to get the letters you need to hit the shift key to get upper case letters, but on the ones I have used, the ordinary key will give an upper case letter. Also they don't seem to be happy with Macs from what I have read.

A quick search brought this up from another Britmodeller page https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=52672.0 It is all the fonts etc in one zip file. I have found them useful when I have been making decals. The great thing about font sizing for 1/72nd scale modellers is that there are 72 points to the inch, so easy to do sizes and it is cheap enough to print on to plain paper to check sizes on the model. Great fun for sad dads

It was something like Yriel Yellow, which as yellows go covers well. I am going to have a look at the Averland Sunset now you have mentioned it as it looks like a good match for Trainer Yellow. I quite like the Citadel Paints as they are easy to use with both brush and airbrush. They are getting, like all paint, a bit pricy. The font for the serials comes from a set of fonts that were available online for free and cover the 'standard' post war RAF font as well as a number of wartime fonts. There were also some Canadian and US fonts as well as Luftwaffe ones. The original site with them on has disappeared and the links on the Internet archive site seem not to work. PM me with an address that will accept attachments and I will send what I have. They are TruType fonts (.ttf) and thus pretty small files. I need to get mine organised, and backups of backups made. I am not paranoid, just cautious (OK, maybe a little paranoid).

Thanks Julien, that makes what happens with the undercarriage bay a lot clearer, apparently the - 7 bay is bit narrower than the - 5, but still offset. The symmetrical bay is probably why the kit seems to lack the strut on the starboard side of the u/c leg. Confession time. I started work to widen the starboard side of the bay by cutting off bay wall and replacing it with a plastic card wall and an extension to the roof. All was well until I realised I had cut the wrong side off. After a string of appropriate Anglo-Saxon oaths, I went to bed as didn't I want mess things up more and watched 'Jo Jo Rabbit' on the Channel 4 app.

The MPM Barracuda isn't as much as a step up as might be expected. It might be why Special Hobby have replaced it with a newish mould. My MPM one is the donor kit for a Maintrack resin conversion that has bee sat in my stash for ages.

Just finished reading the 'Battle of North Cape' It is a good read, and demonstrates the huge differences in the culture and capability between the Royal Navy and Kreigsmarine arine surface fleets in the later years of WW2. North Cape seems to be somewhat lost among sea battles, possibly because it isn't American and in some ways quite an old fashioned sea battle.

Thanks for all the comments, I am going with the Interior Green as the Neptunes started to be delivered early in I952. I don't know when and where they were updated, withe the new nose and tail, but considering most of them were returned by 1957, I cannot see that updating the interior colour was a priority. OT, I have realised that somewhere I have an old negative of the Dutch Neptune that flew at the Finningley BoB displays in the early 70's. Used to do things like flying at low level along the runway with one prop feathered.

Has a bit of a spurt with the Master. I think it is the advantage of having a single colour finish and easy decals. Yellow paint is never easy, and I used a base coat of Citadel yellow with a silly name, and then a coat of Xtracrylic Trainer Yellow on the top. Decals are some old Modeldecals for the roundels with some Fantasy Printshop white disks underneath. Serials and codes are home printed on to inkjet decal paper. They are a pretty good match to the photo. With a bit of luck, I should be able to start on fixing the exhausts on tonight, I am quite pleased with it so far.

That looks really nice, I am pondering doing my recently acquired on for the Airfix GB, and yours is inspirational.

The Blackbird conversion comes with a new longer, nose wheel bay and doors, but I don't think it is offset. My understanding is that the nose wheel itself is on the fuselage centre line, but the bay and doors are offset with the starboard door being further up the fuselage. I plan on having a look at it today, as I might have a bit of time as Mrs T is out all day. I wasooming at the main undercarriage, and to alter it is basically a rebuild, that I do not think is worth it, and I worry about how strong it would be.

I was going to say joystick......

At least the pilots have their arms by their sides. Remember the pilots with their hands in their crotches, presumably meant to be grabbing a control column?