Hope's Sword (4 x Eduard 1/72 Spitfires)

[Procopius]

A little more progress:

 

20170211_172920 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20170211_172927 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

On my prior builds, I masked off the mating surfaces for all the interior parts to ensure a good fit -- I didn't do that here, and kind of regretted it, as the glue didn't stick as well and some clamping was needed. Live and learn.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

PC's personal Supermarine Works.....What's not to like? 

[Procopius]

Cracking along.

 

20170211_214210 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Some errant glue flowed around a clamp and inadvertently seems to have created a passable anti-skid strip.

 

20170211_214133 by Edward IX, on Flickr

[Navy Bird]

Serendipity is a wonderful thing.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[rob85]

I love the glue anti slip strip, I will try this technique myself!

 

all looking very good mr P!

 

Rob

[CedB]

Ditto to Bill's comment, but I bet you can't do it again! Not a challenge of course...

Rob you're very brave  

I love that shot of the three cockpits together - great stuff.

[Procopius]

6 hours ago, rob85 said:

I love the glue anti slip strip, I will try this technique myself!

 

I don't particularly recommend it! I'll probably go over it with Mr Surfacer and patch it up.

 

6 hours ago, CedB said:

Ditto to Bill's comment, but I bet you can't do it again! Not a challenge of course...

 

Indeed not. It's the sort of good idea that ends with a melted plastic wing and a sheepish expression.

 

I slept until almost nine in the morning today. I can't remember the last time I did that. It felt opulent.

[Procopius]

2017-02-12_01-13-44 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

I tried something new with the filler I'm using -- 3M Glazing & Spot Putty, an automotive filler -- and mixed it with some Gunze Self-Levelling Thinner. It forms a much thinner liquid that's less "chunky", for lack of a better word, and is a little more controllable, though we'll see if there's any appreciable difference in performance. 

[Procopius]

So very little else was accomplished today, despite my hopes, because my sister, who lives a little over a mile away with our parents, showed up uninvited, and proceeded to watch TV and quilt in my drawing room for rather a long interval. It's wonderful to have family.

 

Anyway, the present state of play:

 

20170213_005144 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I put some filler on the upper cowl seams, which always end up pretty dire:

 

20170213_010234 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20170213_010249 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I also ran afoul of my old nemesis, capillary action, and glue flowed around my thumb and left a remarkable-looking indentation on the side of the engine on one kit. I Mr Surfacered it up and sanded it down; it looks  okay now, I guess.

 

20170213_010240 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Working from home tomorrow and Tuesday, so perhaps I'll get more done. I work for an organization a little like the Law Society, and the recent political events in my homeland have caused us to lumber into the political sphere, so I've been a little busy of late. Hopefully I'll be granted asylum before we're all pitched against a wall (or out of a helicopter, I hear that's a popular one).

[CedB]

Very neat work with the filler PC

Good recovery on the glue patch too.

They're looking really tidy.

[lasermonkey]

Looking good, Mr P! 

If it's any consolation, I never fail to get gluey fingerprints on my models, usually due to the dreaded capillary action.

[Navy Bird]

On 2/11/2017 at 1:27 AM, Procopius said:

I have a four-day weekend. See you soon!

 

So here I am, standing at the front door, airbrush in one hand and a bottle of Scotch in the other, and no PC in sight! Drat, stood up again.  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[bbudde]

Looking great so far. Will take the seat in the back row at the middle for aged farsighted and watch this silently. So I can watch also people in front of me watching the movie. Cheers

Edited February 13, 2017 by bbudde

[Beard]

Nice progress PC, despite the errant thumb mark. I almost bought some overtrees today, for a project I have that involves four MkIXs and a MkVIII (converted into a MkVII), but baulked at the €14 postage. I'm going to have to re-think that, maybe by buying more to make the postage less onerous.

[TheBaron]

5 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

 

So here I am, standing at the front door, airbrush in one hand and a bottle of Scotch in the other, and no PC in sight! Drat, stood up again.  

I do hope you had a towel round your waist Bill.The winter nights can be cruel...

14 hours ago, Procopius said:

 I work for an organization a little like the Law Society, and the recent political events in my homeland have caused us to lumber into the political sphere, 

You're an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? 

 

That trio of cockpits earlier looked particularly fine PC. I too am cursed with a fertile thumb, though mine prefers paint as its chosen means of expression...

 

Tony

[Tomoshenko]

Wow they're looking amazing. Keep building Spitfires, save the world!

[Procopius]

On 2/13/2017 at 9:56 AM, Navy Bird said:

 

So here I am, standing at the front door, airbrush in one hand and a bottle of Scotch in the other, and no PC in sight! Drat, stood up again.  

 

Sorry Bill. Be careful what you wish for, though: I spent a week visiting poor Cookenbacher last year. Any airshows near you?

 

On 2/13/2017 at 4:02 PM, Tomoshenko said:

Wow they're looking amazing. Keep building Spitfires, save the world!

 

They generally look their best before I get too much paint on them. But that dark day draws nearer.

 

2017-02-14_04-25-01 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I put in the gunsights (I broke three of the reflector gunsights trying to put them in one Spitfire and had to use Gator Grip glue -- which is amazing stuff by the way -- to repair one), added the cockpit doors, the ailerons, the elevators, and the rudders. I need to do the radiators, that little roll bar doohicky that runs from the back of the seat to the fuselage, add the canopies, and the guns, and then prime. I added the 0.50-inch machinegun barrels and the blanking stubs today, and mightily frustrating it was, too. 

 

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! I told Mrs P I loved her more than hedgehogs and Spitfires, but she didn't believe me.

[Harley John]

Apologies for being late for assembly Sir, but I have a note from Matron. Lovely work so far PC on some more of these Spitfire thingys! It's getting like a scene from Battle of Britain with all those Spits in formation!

[Navy Bird]

53 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Sorry Bill. Be careful what you wish for, though: I spent a week visiting poor Cookenbacher last year. Any airshows near you?

 

Geneseo. It's the Greatest Show on Turf. July 15-16, 2017. I haven't seen the lineup for this year yet. In the last few years they've had Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquito, Lancaster, Sea Harrier FA.2 (not all at the same time) in addition to the usual Mustangs, C-47, Corsair, Avenger, B-25, C-46, Stearmans, Tiger Moths, Sukhoi stunt planes, Zero & Val replicas, a veritable army of Harvards, etc. I heard a rumour that this year we'll see the Butcher Bird from the Fighter Factory, but I've heard those rumours before.

 

Typically each year they also set up a WWII-era base with vintage vehicles, tents, equipment, and folks in period garb. It's fun. They even have a swing dance one of the nights. 

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

 

[Procopius]

4 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Geneseo. It's the Greatest Show on Turf. July 15-16, 2017. I haven't seen the lineup for this year yet. In the last few years they've had Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquito, Lancaster, Sea Harrier FA.2 (not all at the same time) in addition to the usual Mustangs, C-47, Corsair, Avenger, B-25, C-46, Stearmans, Tiger Moths, Sukhoi stunt planes, Zero & Val replicas, a veritable army of Harvards, etc. I heard a rumour that this year we'll see the Butcher Bird from the Fighter Factory, but I've heard those rumours before.

 

Come to think of it, I think you posted some photos from it! There's an old guided-missile cruiser kicking around Buffalo as well, isn't there? Hmm.

 

4 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

They even have a swing dance one of the nights. 

 

I'll need you to lead.

 

Anyhoq

On 2/13/2017 at 3:46 PM, TheBaron said:

You're an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? 

 

More like if SHIELD had a voluntary professional association they could join and that association had a guy who tweeted on their behalf with limited supervision. Also he was in charge of organizing pizza lunches for his coworkers and making sure everyone used the English language correctly except once he corrected his boss's grammar three times in a row in a meeting and she got a tic in one eye so not the last one so much. That guy.

 

2017-02-14_09-58-36 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I masked the first canopy -- I'm not a huge fan of the masks for the sliding hood, since they just sort of outline the framing and leave me to fill in the rest, which feels an awful lot like work. 

 

Also, I got a haircut! I desperately needed it, since I hadn't had one since November and was starting to look like, as one of my friends put it, I was "about to drop the hottest indie track of 1996".

 

20170207_123227 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Now I look more like the affable loser I really am:

 

20170213_142259 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I'm like a loveable wisecracking sidekick in an action movie. Maybe the bad guy kills me to show how serious the situation is. Maybe I manage to tell him he'll never defeat the protagonist and spit a little blood at him before I go. Maybe I just get thrown through a wall and show up in the end with a sling on my arm. Who can say?

 

 

[Learstang]

Blimey, PC, it's like Castle Bromwich in your house with all those Spitfires being built! By the way, in one of your piccies, you seem to have sprouted a small humanoid. Sort of like a Hydra budding off another Hydra. 'Affable loser'; that's a good one. I prefer more heroic titles like 'visionary writer', 'towering intellect', 'magisterial author', etc. All untrue, of course, but I still like the titles. I've tried unsuccessfully to have my editor always refer to me on the jacket liner notes with these titles, but to no avail. Unfortunately, he's actually seen me and talked to me. On the good side, I did receive the complimentary copies of my latest literary triumph, 'Tupolev Tu-2: The Forgotten Medium Bomber' in the mail yesterday, so I now know it was actually published. Up until yesterday, it was only a whispered rumour.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, Learstang said:

'Affable loser'; that's a good one. I prefer more heroic titles like 'visionary writer', 'towering intellect', 'magisterial author', etc. All untrue, of course, but I still like the titles.

 

Well, a love of titles is probably a good trait in an author (or an Edwardian-era European nobleman). And you never know, we become who we think ourselves to be (sometimes). I'm not even very affable.

[Learstang]

Well, I am a bit of a visionary. Unfortunately, most of my visions involve a 19-year old Salma Hayek and a hot tub, so they're not of much use in my rather staid line of writing. Unless I start writing for Harlequin Romances... Now there's a thought - I could use my questionable literary talents in the service of middle-aged women everywhere! I'll be invited onto talk shows, I'll make a guest appearance on 'What's My Line', they'll name a disease after me! I'll be famous and become fabulously wealthy! I wonder if Salma Hayek has a 19-year old daughter with a hot tub...

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Harley John]

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

 

Well, a love of titles is probably a good trait in an author (or an Edwardian-era European nobleman).

Or American Businessmen! A very long, long, time I ago I worked for the British subsidiary of an American High Street Finance Company. Never in my life have I seen an organisation so littered with Vice-Presidents, Senior Vice-Presidents, Executive Vice-Presidents, Executive Senior Vice-Presidents and so forth.

I do though quite fancy the idea of an Edwardian-era noble title or perhaps a title that suggests a character in a Terry Pratchet novel. Certain Scottish Clan Chiefs use "of that ilk" after their family name, that also appeals.

[Procopius]

3 hours ago, Harley John said:

Or American Businessmen! A very long, long, time I ago I worked for the British subsidiary of an American High Street Finance Company. Never in my life have I seen an organisation so littered with Vice-Presidents, Senior Vice-Presidents, Executive Vice-Presidents, Executive Senior Vice-Presidents and so forth.

 

My dad was a Vice-President of Management Information Systems with Nightingale-Conant back in the 1980s and 1990s...he had maybe four people who worked for him. The mania for vice-presidents was (and may still be) very real in late-20th Century US corporations.