Nomad

Looks really good. Was the line along the fuselage between the upper colours and the underside free-hand or masked? Damon

I'll have a go with a 1/72 Mk XVIII Tsetse Damon

D'oh! That's right, rub it in!! It's not too painful really, the money I spent came from some-one else and anyway, you had a good lump out of me at Telford. I did look through your online catalogue a while ago, must have missed them. Will try harder in future. Damon

I was wandering round Hobbycraft in Nottingham yeaterday and found Berna Multiclamps in the hobby tools section, packaged by Model Craft. Haven't seen them before in there or is this old news? Thought I'd pass it on anyway. They appear to be the genuine French article, 'Made in France' markings, copyright and patent marks. Bit pricey though, £9 for two small ones, didn't have any of the larger style in stock. Bought a couple of packs with some of my xmas pressie money. Damon

Smashing, thank you Bob. I'm still looking at pics and then the bits of model to build an understanding of 'what goes where' with the various marks, waiting to get a set of drawings and a couple more books as well as some resin upgrade bits to tinker with. I want to try doing more than just 'assembling' a kit, but if I set myself too high a target I'll just get frustrated and give up, so I'm still working out what is achievable without going OTT. Thanks to everyone for the input so far. Damon

I read a bit on the interweb a while ago that made comment about the ammonia content of old Klear and how it had fallen foul of new European safety regs, don't know if this was an accurate commentary 'cos it was tangled up in a vitriolic rant about EU interference in British law, so may be nonsense, like the mythical 'straight banana' diktat. However a quick Google did reveal this policy document about the intention to reduce ammonia waste(among others). Maybe the caustic nature of ammonia has a softening effect on the decals? Hmm, wonder if there's any mileage in trying to mix a spot of ammonia with new formula? Or is that just a recipe for self asphyxiation? Any chemists available to comment? Damon

Always hankered after building another Airfix 1/72 MkXVIII like the one I built in my teens. This could be the excuse I need. Damon

Today wifey darling wanted to go to Nottingham to check out a few shops and apparently I was quite keen to go too, or so I was told! Whilst obediently shambling round ‘Poundworld’ on the Lady Bay Retail Park I cast my eye over the shelf of cleaning products in the vain hope of finding a lost bottle of ‘Klear’, no such luck of course, however I did spot this product; Which claims to do a similar job to Klear, and reading the instructions it rang a few bells; Sound familiar? So for a quid I thought it has to be worth a punt. Tonight I’ve brushed two coats onto a layer of well dried Humbrol matt paint and then given it a quick buff with kitchen roll. It’s come up to quite a pleasing semi-gloss and tomorrow I’ll try layering on another coat to see if I can improve the shine. I don’t know if this has genuine possibilities to be a replacement for the hollowed Klear, but for a quid a bottle? Hopefully some-one with more experience of Klear will be willing to try it for themselves and feed-back an opinion. Damon

Right-o, thanks for that. Couple more querys; cockpit interior colour. I've got pics of both black IP and grey, is the grey a later colour as most of the contemporary 50s/60s pics seem to have black IPs? Are there any images of undercarriage bay interiors floating out in web-space? I've been Googling but my Google-fu is weak as I can only find a few images on the 'Thunder & lightnings' site. Thanks for any help Damon

The quality presented here really does press the 'I want that one' button. When I was younger an Airfix 1/72 Mk XVIII was my pride and joy, it was the first kit I did ‘properly’; painted interior, filled and sanded joints, accurate colour scheme and decals. Seeing this build really has provoked me into getting one of these and reliving my ‘thing’ for the Mossie. Thanks a lot, you just cost me the best part of £100! Damon

It does need sealing, especially if put on as dry powder, otherwise it rubs off every time it gets touched. I used spray matt varnish from a can straight over the pigment wash and it did 'knock back' the colour tones to a degree, helping them to blend. Again it's probably best to experiment to see what effect you can achieve and whether you like it or not. Just remembered, I've also got some pastel pencils that I've tried; You can 'scribble' some pigment into an area and then give it a flick over with a damp brush to blend it. Damon

Great, thanks. Plenty to be getting on with! Time to stare at more pictures, or dare I pick up the scriber and start doing some Damage? Damon

Wow, that bomb bay looks really good. Seriously inspiring for my own intention to build a Vulcan. Did you have any issues getting the resin bits to fit? Damon

Excellent, thank you. So the raised slat detail needs removing to leave a smooth surface? For a B1 (Santa was nice and brought me another Victor) the leading edge will need cutting/filing back to line up with the inner leading edge? Is this parallel along the length of the edge or does it taper to the tip? (I'm still waiting to hear back from Mr. Bentley on the supply of a set of his 1/72 drawings, so hopefully will be able to get a better understanding of the shapes in the near future). Looking a pictures of Victors, I can't see much in the way of visible panel lines apart from the engine service panels, leaving me wondering if rescribing is the way to go, or just remove the raised stuff and do some limited scribing based on what I can see in pics, I think this is probably going to be down to individual taste and what 'looks' right. Damon

Another point to clarify if possible, under the leading edge of the outer wings, the slat is represented with a 'trough' behind it on the MBox/Revell kit wing. Is this an accurate representation or does it need filling? Damon

Woah, that's quite a list, thanks Adrian. Looks like I'm in for a bit of Googling/Amazon hunting to pick out a few choice pieces. Damon

Hi Don For the cheaper option to start with, the art shop in St. Peters Church Yard in Derby sell individual pastel sticks, easily ground up to experiment with. I just scrape a bit off with a scalpel blade. For a really heavy dusting, I 'scrub' it on dry with a short bristled brush, or for a 'grubby' look, mix it into a 'slurry' with water, slop it on then wipe it off with a damp cloth after it's dry. If you do it on an unvarnished matt surface it leaves a 'ground in' kind of dirty look that worked well on some desert vehicles. It's well worth having a play with to see if you like the effect. Damon

Hello all, an enquiry to the collective wisdom if I may? As well as renewing my modelling life with a delve into V bombers, I’m indulging my passion for books and ‘new knowledge’ by building a suitable reference set to inform/enlighten me about the world of V bombers. I’ve made a start with a few titles but would like some further guidance. What are your favoured or best regarded books for this purpose? So far I have as a general reference; ‘V Bombers’ by Barry Jones For the Valiant; The Aerofax and Warpaint publications, although I have seen criticism of the drawings in the Warpaint book. Are these plans any better regarded? For the Vulcan; Again the Aerofax book Are there any good drawing for the Vulcan? For the Victor; ‘Postwar Military Aircraft 6: HP Victor’ by Andrew Brookes ‘HP Victor Volume 1’ by Roger R Brooks (Hopefully volume 2 will arrive with Santa, if not it will be my ‘well-done-for-surviving-my-mother-in-law-over-xmas’ present to myself ). How reliable are Mr Bentleys drawings of the Victor? I have been ‘bookmarking’ and ‘favourite-ing’ (is that a word? ‘tis now!) interweb sites/piccys as I come across them, but I like books so I’m quite happy spending a few quid. Thanks for any input Damon

There's a T34/85 by the side of the road in a village called Fromes Hill in Herefordshire, if you look for it on Google Maps you can zoom in on the Wheatsheaf Inn on the A4103 on streetview for a 'walkround'. Don't know if it's still there though, as the Google images are a couple of years old now. I got a good set of pics when I happened accross it on my way to collect a new dog a couple of years ago. Damon

Mmm... I've got a pile of 1/72 1/76 armour that would be suitable and a couple of AFV Club 1/35 Centurion/Sho't Kal to tinker with Damon

Could I add a tentative 'me too' please? I've got a Vulcan, a Valiant and a pair of Victors to go at, so I should be able to produce something useful. Damon

I found my old copy of 'Scale Models- Aircraft from the Battle of Britain' compendium in the loft a while ago. One of the articles is from Ray Rimmel when he beat the snot out of this kit, would a photocopy be of use, or do you already have it? Damon

Thanks Bill I think the scribing will be a 'suck it and see' exercise, if nothing else it will be good practice, even if it is sanding and filling after the inevitable 'whoops, sod it!' moment. I've got one book that mentions the difference in fuselage length around the nose area but it doesn't say particularly where the extension was put in, never mind, it's a 'mad plan' for another day, I'm sure I'll find a suitable reference at some point. It's an excuse to buy more books! To Amazon! Jens, you read my mind! Damon

@Bill Hi, could I pick your brains for a while please as I'm contemplating setting about the Matchbox Victor to turn it into a B2 and I'm planning to try the Flightpath resin/PE upgrade set and I already have the Aviation Workshop wing tip/bomb-bay kit. When you anneal the brass do you heat the whole piece until it's 'cherry red' and then quench it to cool rapidly or allow to cool slowly? Rescribing, how much and how far? This is probably more of a personal taste thing but do you replace all of the raised detail with scribing or leave some out? And just supposing a body was daft enough to be contemplating converting another Victor into a prototype, where and how much cutting would the fuselage need? Thanks for any tips Damon