My models thus far

[Twigman]

Righty, so my first topic here are the pictures of most of my models which i have living on my shelf, a James Bond Skyfall Merlin, BAe Sea Harrier FRS.2, BAe Hawk Mk.1 and a (broken) ACH-47A attack Chinook. Everything is hand painted and primed black first. Look closely to the Merlin and you'll see a slightly bent tail rotor blade, that was because a bus driver practically threw its carrying box at me when it got left on there returning from a cadet competition but it could have been much worse

Along with those I have a wooden Apache (slatted wood), an A6M-Zero (packed away, moving house, otherwise I'd show you some pics :-/ ) and a little A-10. Enough chatter, on forth! (forgive the bumf, the only free space I have is a tiny corner of my desk!!)

My 3 children

Start off with the Merlin, she won me my first competition!

Close up of the cockpit

Gunners door, he moves too

My hawk, I wanted it to be different so have fun with the colour scheme

Adjusted landing gear to make it appear like its landing or taking off (rather crude)

Now same again from the belly

Harrier, she's an old birdie, and unlikely to be finished somewhere in the foreseeable, maybe once my next few models are done...

Poor ACH-47A...all I did was drop a fingerless glove on her and the entire rear rotor fell apart

Thanks for looking

Twig

[brianthemodeller]

I love the colour scheme on that Hawk!

If I may suggest, for the future try masking the canopies and painting the frames (or do it freehand if you are steady enough) and you will see a dramatic difference to the finished model.

Also, see if you can find a piece of acrylic or plastic rod to make a stand so you can lift the Hawk up to get the effect of the landing gear (which I also really like).

Keep up the good work!

[Twigman]

Haha thank you very much

I am planning on using tape next time, I only found out about painting canopies after finding this site a few months back, but feel free to suggest anything, I certainly didn't think of clear acrylic to hold it up

[Jessica]

For the Chinook, try your hand at drilling and pinning. They're a bit expensive, but a pin vice and good set of micro drill bits will last a good long time so they're a very worthwhile investment.

Drill out the rotor blades and the hub, insert short bits of wire (paper clips are cheap and easy to cut up) then superglue or epoxy the rotors back in place. As a bonus, they'll be much stronger than the original was, and laugh at falling gloves

[Twigman]

Thanks for the tip Jessica, I think I now know what I'm going to do with it (the other option was as a friend suggested, to take a hammer to it and turn it into a Vietnam diorama. Heck no!! ) my dad didn't have any that small so I didn't pursue it, though now I can breath a new lease of life into it

Many thanks

Twig

[DanSAR95]

A great techinque I've acquired is to use a brush that's suitable for the window or cockpit frames, one thats fairly close to the width of the frames, and roughly paint over the frames, running in the direction the frame is running in. Know while you may think, no there'll be paint where their shouldn't be, ie, away from the frames, there is, after all you quickly and roughly paint them, but you then take a wooden cocktail stick and drive it along the elevated frame. As long as you don't push the cocktail stick hard, you'll not scratch the plastic. There you are, perfectly painted windows done in hardly any time. I used to use tape and it used to annoy me how long it took, in fact, I hated masking so much, I avoided kits I had with lots of framing to the cockpits, my method posted above is crazy how quick and easy it makes the process. I've used it on my last few models and its actually fun to do. Regards

[Royster]

All looking good! When making Helos consider not glueing the rotor head assemblies in place and simply place them in position. Couple of reasons:

1. Takes up less shelf space when you have plenty to display.

2. and more importantly when flying them around the living room, they wont get knocked off and you can pretend they are spinning. The Wife thinks I'm awesome. hehe

Enjoy the hobby!

[Twigman]

DanSAR95, I'm afraid my hand isn't quite steady enough to do freehand quite like that (yet!) though it sounds interesting it will be something that I'll have to try some time

Royster, while my rotors aren't glued down, I have never been able to pull them off once they've been placed on for the first time. Thankfully they still spin, however it half kills me whenever I have to transport the Merlin anywhere because of the rotors!!

Many thanks

Twig

[Tomjw]

For the Chinook, try your hand at drilling and pinning. They're a bit expensive, but a pin vice and good set of micro drill bits will last a good long time so they're a very worthwhile investment.

Drill out the rotor blades and the hub, insert short bits of wire (paper clips are cheap and easy to cut up) then superglue or epoxy the rotors back in place. As a bonus, they'll be much stronger than the original was, and laugh at falling gloves

This is a good tip re: drilling and pinning, but I bought a reasonable set of four pin vices for four pounds from Boyes, and a perfectly acceptable set of micro drill bits for nor much more from the same place.

Cheers,

Tom.

[DanSAR95]

DanSAR95, I'm afraid my hand isn't quite steady enough to do freehand quite like that (yet!) though it sounds interesting it will be something that I'll have to try some time

Royster, while my rotors aren't glued down, I have never been able to pull them off once they've been placed on for the first time. Thankfully they still spin, however it half kills me whenever I have to transport the Merlin anywhere because of the rotors!!

Many thanks

Twig

Honestly you don't have to have a steady hand, you can be as rough and as imperfect as you want, as long as the frames have paint on them. Just slop the paint on, the cocktail stick sorts it out. I forgot to say it's best to paint the whole thing before starting to cocktail stick it. On my last model, nearly the whole front section was painted black, I used the cocktail stick and it removed all that wasn't frame. Regards

[Jessica]

This is a good tip re: drilling and pinning, but I bought a reasonable set of four pin vices for four pounds from Boyes, and a perfectly acceptable set of micro drill bits for nor much more from the same place.

Cheers,

Tom.

There you go

They seem to be made of diamond over here in Canada; prices are a lot higher than that...

[Tomjw]

There you go

They seem to be made of diamond over here in Canada; prices are a lot higher than that...

To be honest, its getting like that over here also. Prices are rocketing for everything.

Cheers,

Tom.

[Val]

Awesome work there mate

[Leonl]

Nice collection. I like the landing gear on the Hawk, nice touch.