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Tower Bridge Hunter - Airfix 1/72


CedB

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16 minutes ago, Graham In Oz said:

runways...?

It had PSP under the grass. Landed 3 Vulcans there and a Comet 2 (C.2) As far as I know all the Hunters were roaded in on Queen Marys. The Sea Hawks ,Sea Vixens, Lightning were. Quite a few Hunters went back in to service with the Jordanians and Swiss Airforce in 1971/72. We also  had a Twin Pioneer, Argosy T2, JPs by the bucket, Piston Provosts for elementary airframe Instruction and Marshalling. Hunter, Sea Hawks for Advanced Airframe. JPs and Canberras down the airfield. That's for 70-72. They added a couple of Sea Vixens too but were deemed too complicated for training. For Choppers we had a couple of Whirlwinds. That Twin Pin was huge (compared to what I expected it to be!) Had to do something on it but can't remember what ! The Leckies had an ex Reds Gnat to wreck .

Edited by bzn20
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I believe Halton is the groundschool base for RAF engineers, so not an active jet base, but training airframes.

I grew up a few miles from there, just the other side of Wendover in Hughenden Valley and did my ATC gliding there too. It is also the Tropical Medicine centre. I had to have my shots there before I went out to work in Guinea, then had to change a tyre on the way home, after having 3 shots in one arm and two in the other!

 

Ian

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The 'sheds' with the Hunters, JP's etc were part of the main camp,

across the road at the bottom of the hill. The airfield part of the camp

was actually down the road a bit.

The engine trainees had a Beverly or Argosy to play with when I was there.

We had a few aircraft to push around and 'Chiefy' drove a JP at us to marshall.

 

 

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7 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I believe Halton is the groundschool base for RAF engineers, so not an active jet base, but training airframes.

I grew up a few miles from there, just the other side of Wendover in Hughenden Valley and did my ATC gliding there too. It is also the Tropical Medicine centre. I had to have my shots there before I went out to work in Guinea, then had to change a tyre on the way home, after having 3 shots in one arm and two in the other!

 

Ian

 

When I was last there on GST2 21 years ago, it was used for initial recruit training to learn military walking, the RAF Police and Stackers (aka Blanket Stackers aka Stores dept), training was being done there as well as GST for newly promoted NCO's.  There was no technical training being done there, that had all moved up to Cosford.

 

Interesting to hear of the types being used at Halton and comparing them to what we had at Cosford for the same thing, at Cosford in the early 80's, we had a couple of Argosies, some Shackletons (mostly Mk3's but also a couple of Mk2's), Canberras (mostly B.2's but some B.6's and B.15's too - I did my final board on a Canberra), ex FTS Gnats and Hunter T.7 for fault finding and ex-Red Arrows Gnats for marshalling.  The mechanics did some flight servicing practice on Sea Vixen's and JP.3's but we techies never went near those because we would never be used to do such "menial" tasks as flight servicing - a policy which was plainly never discussed with the Squadrons as the very first thing I was taught when I arrived on the Squadron were composite flight servicings and ground handling.

 

Back to the main topic, nice work with the Hunter Ced:thumbsup2:

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7 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Argosy

That was an Argosy T2 Pete with massive n****e.....I mean Radome..

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11 hours ago, limeypilot said:

not an active jet base

It wasn't active anything apart from a Chipmunk flt for air experience jollies and Gliders .

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My Dad was there 1943-46. The Airfield was quite busy then. He remembered a pile of P47s flew in, amazed that the Pilots were all young women in the ATA. Alsoo had a B-17 that made an emergency landing coming back from daylight over Europe. One day they heard a B-17 making odd noises, looked up and it was smoking and engine feathered and the throttles were being moved back and forward. It was limping along badly up and downThe nose looked shot out, they thought another member of the crew was trying to fly it, pilots incapacitated , It just cleared the big hill behind Halton , Henderson Square and if you know it, Pimple Point. Minutes later a Yellow twin boomed plane (Vampire)whizzed over .. What the hell is that ? One of his number was an ex apprentice with DH and just smiled but couldn't tell them it was a classified secret . He found out when he got home to Manchester on his next Leave, another friend was an apprentice at Metropolitan Vickers and this 'plane just whizzed overhead..Thats what I saw at Halton, his mate wasn't so secretive. Some time before joined up Metrovicks had a secret workshop in Trafford Park, Manchester. His house was on top of a hill overlooking T/Park, On a Summer's night a Scream was all enveloping Rising to a high pitch, bang nothing. Didn't know what it was then. weeks later a Contrail way up in the sky ,big circle ,air raid siren going. Anti aircraft unit complete with balloons behind his house (lovely) was going full chat. Next night siren going , couple of  bangs in Trafford Park..Nothing else.. All Clear went. The Germans took out MetroVicks secret workshop with one or two bombs ! Never reported in the papers either.

OOPs gone off T a bit

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On ‎23‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 1:51 PM, bzn20 said:

I was working on Hunters at Halton 1970, about 20 of them in total, been there a few years ,none had NMF lower fuse that I can remember

Heres the Halton stack . Cut our teeth on them

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Hunters+RAF+Halton&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSrazcyoLaAhXK3KQKHTzVCVQQ_AUICygC&biw=1301&bih=602&dpr=1.05#imgrc=icnD0cz1YVjmtM:&spf=1521812873226

 

http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=157848

 

It's not a NMF, it's a painted High-speed Silver.  As far as I can see, the very first photo that comes up on your link, the Hunters are silver painted underneath.

There may well have been a "changeover" period, as LAG was brought in when the paint type was changed in the late 60's, and there was no silver available in the new paint type.

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8 hours ago, Devilfish said:

It's not a NMF

Is this Silver or LAG ?..I thought we were talking about the previous being NMF .These hadn't been painted at Halton straight from Sqn or storage at Kemble, the  link are 1989 photos and are exactly the same ones and paint scheme I was on in 70-72. Anyway  the first in the Google pic is when I was there,1971 and let me know what the paint is, thought it was grey so maybe they were Silver

 

http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=969437

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1 minute ago, bzn20 said:

 

Is this Silver or LAG ?..I thought we were talking about the previous being NMF .These hadn't been painted at Halton straight from Sqn or storage at Kemble, the  link are 1989 photos and are exactly the same ones and paint scheme I was on in 70-72. Anyway  the first in the Google pic is when I was there,1971 and let me know what the paint is, thought it was grey so maybe they were Silver

 

http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=969437

The original underside colour of the Hunters (and most other RAF fighters of the day) was High Speed Silver (although that wasn't an official name, I believe). This is a painted on colour, not a natural metal finish.  As someone else stated, they went to LAG from 1966, subject to going through major servicing.  The colour was changed to grey, because the paint type was changed (I forget from what to what), and they couldn't do a silver in the new type, so light grey was chosen as a replacement.  When you were there in 1970, it is likely that most were grey, but some could still have been silver.  That first photo to me looks more silver than grey, but I could be wrong (exposure etc)

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Heres a pic from 1959,91st entry at Halton.. This looks light grey. If it is makes no sense for the Silver to LAG date. Really confused now.. We got cans of DTD numbered paint , Section and Reference numbers and NATO Def Stan , forget colour descriptions. If the spec changes its the latest DTD, Sect/Ref Number or NATO Def Stan in the relevant AP/Manual that's correct not the colour.

 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/347973508692840249/

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All the paint on that Hunter looks knackered so it could easily be worn out HSS.

Silver and other metallic paints used to weather badly to Matt, the metallicness almost used to wash out of them!

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Nice

 

Camera and very nice Hunter

 

If there is still any doubt Ced the pictures of the Hunters from Halton do look like HSS rather than the warmer earthy grey tone of LAG

 

(I would go for a silver in a washed out kind of way, maybe even a Vallejo Silver with a light varnish coat)

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Apologies for the lack of posts for the last couple of days - life and all that... so where are we?

 

On 24/03/2018 at 17:40, Bigdave22014 said:

Ced, the public are clamouring for a model of Tower Bridge to go with this model.

Surely you're not going to disappoint them are you? ;)

Dave I am going to disappoint them (I think) and stop calling me Shirley! :D

 

On 24/03/2018 at 17:43, bzn20 said:

Ha,ha...***********g Blowdowns.. Right lads we'll blowdown the undercarriage ... What the instructor and 16 of us trainees didn't know was the last bloke to replenish the hyd system hadn't secured the filler cap on the reservoir  properly  .. And  bang, big Jet then a haze of OM15 ! It was all over the place . The Hunter and some of us were dripping, floor was a mare , luckily the cap is tied to the structure by a chain, that would have travelled like a big bullet !.. Kipping in the fuse with engine removed was good. Steve Payne was the SGT , July ish 1977. Pete, ring any bells?

On 24/03/2018 at 18:47, Wez said:

An OM15 shower!  Damned stuff bloody stinks, you could always tell a who the lineys were when you queued up for scran in the mess, we'd be the ones stinking of OM15 and Avtur.

On 24/03/2018 at 19:22, bzn20 said:

I can actually smell the stuff right now ! Not as bad as Skydrol, OF4 ( Veg based) was supposed to be even worse.

On 24/03/2018 at 19:57, Pete in Lincs said:

By then I was on Wessex Majors servicings at Odiham.

I only have a few memories of the Mechs course anyway,

It was a long time ago and there was beer!

That long HOT Summer of 1976, away from home, 

it was a very different world indeed.

The fitters course is sharper in my mind. I was married

by then, a Father, and couldn't afford much beer!

On 24/03/2018 at 20:00, Wez said:

 

Mrs Wez can tell if I've been near an aircraft at work that day, she can detect the acrid tang of OM15, I walk in the house and before I get a hug I get told to go for a shower :(

On 24/03/2018 at 20:13, 71chally said:

removing the bag tanks from the wing, now that is a most fiddly operation with an ungodly smell, in fact I was so out of it after a session of that that I put the wrong fuel in my car, so expensive as well! 

 

Coming on very nicely there Ced.

On 24/03/2018 at 20:48, corsaircorp said:

Call on the AA, we have such Customer almost one per week...

And without being a member... Yes it's expensive

More even today because of the EU rules....

Try the gear box oïl Hypoid.... :puke:

But you're right, I tried an old C-119 that has been left open air for years

Rats were glad to find a good place for their nest, seemingly the smell did'nt bother them...

They just add another smell in the wings...

Lord that was awfull !!

sincerely.

CC

 

Great memories, thanks guys :)

 

On 24/03/2018 at 19:46, giemme said:

Definitely! Brilliant macro pics!

 

Good to see the fuselage halves are now joined together :clap:

 

I keep thinking of those Berna clamps ...

 

Ciao

 

Thanks Giorgio - buy some clamps, buy some clamps... there's nothing like them IMHO for a 'gentle hold' :)

 

On 24/03/2018 at 20:03, Mr T said:

Sorry, a bit late for this one and I have had me tea, a Thai Green curry. I have fond memories of the Airfix Hunter partial retool from the eighties. Built a couple of them and even created a basic resin interior. Undercarriage main wheels are still pretty good. It is not a bad kit, although I seem to remember the wings needed work to obtain a reasonable fit. 

Thanks Mr T - I'll 'look forward' to the wing fit :shutup:

 

 

On 24/03/2018 at 20:50, bzn20 said:

We heard stories at Brize you lot were marching across Main Point at 4 or 5 am so you could get a QFO before the Sun really started baking . Can't imagine Old Workshops in a heatwave. I was sweating over the Mild Steel Block in  Icy December .  We were having it hard at Brize.. 2 hours of softball for lunch..

On 24/03/2018 at 20:56, Pete in Lincs said:

Yes. Early start, no ties, shirt sleeves and early stack. Heaven. (with beer).

Mind you, the pay was abysmal. I was trying to pay off my Escort at

25 pounds* a month and I was struggling. Darn that beer!

 

*No pound sign on this laptop, it has a $ instead.

On 24/03/2018 at 21:20, Wez said:

 

I remember reading Safety and Servicing Notes (as they were back then), during the airfields phase at Cosford, Skydrol scared the willies out of me, I thought the flesh would drop off of my bones if I got within sniffing distance of the stuff! Skydrol = nasty

On 24/03/2018 at 21:59, limeypilot said:

You'll find it on the "character map" along with all the other accents etc.

 

Ian

More great memories, thanks chaps :)

 

 

On 24/03/2018 at 23:52, Graham In Oz said:

Pardon me if this seems a stupid question or three, but isn't Halton a grass airfield with no hard runways? How did the jets land? Or were they OK to use grass? Or am I wrong and they did have hard runways...?

 

My only connection with the place is driving past once in a while... and using the Halton NDB when flying Cessnas out of Booker.

On 25/03/2018 at 00:01, bzn20 said:

It had PSP under the grass. Landed 3 Vulcans there and a Comet 2 (C.2) As far as I know all the Hunters were roaded in on Queen Marys. The Sea Hawks ,Sea Vixens, Lightning were. Quite a few Hunters went back in to service with the Jordanians and Swiss Airforce in 1971/72. We also  had a Twin Pioneer, Argosy T2, JPs by the bucket, Piston Provosts for elementary airframe Instruction and Marshalling. Hunter, Sea Hawks for Advanced Airframe. JPs and Canberras down the airfield. That's for 70-72. They added a couple of Sea Vixens too but were deemed too complicated for training. For Choppers we had a couple of Whirlwinds. That Twin Pin was huge (compared to what I expected it to be!) Had to do something on it but can't remember what ! The Leckies had an ex Reds Gnat to wreck .

On 25/03/2018 at 02:36, limeypilot said:

I believe Halton is the groundschool base for RAF engineers, so not an active jet base, but training airframes.

I grew up a few miles from there, just the other side of Wendover in Hughenden Valley and did my ATC gliding there too. It is also the Tropical Medicine centre. I had to have my shots there before I went out to work in Guinea, then had to change a tyre on the way home, after having 3 shots in one arm and two in the other!

 

Ian

On 25/03/2018 at 06:59, Pete in Lincs said:

The 'sheds' with the Hunters, JP's etc were part of the main camp,

across the road at the bottom of the hill. The airfield part of the camp

was actually down the road a bit.

The engine trainees had a Beverly or Argosy to play with when I was there.

We had a few aircraft to push around and 'Chiefy' drove a JP at us to marshall.

 

 

On 25/03/2018 at 09:42, Wez said:

 

When I was last there on GST2 21 years ago, it was used for initial recruit training to learn military walking, the RAF Police and Stackers (aka Blanket Stackers aka Stores dept), training was being done there as well as GST for newly promoted NCO's.  There was no technical training being done there, that had all moved up to Cosford.

 

Interesting to hear of the types being used at Halton and comparing them to what we had at Cosford for the same thing, at Cosford in the early 80's, we had a couple of Argosies, some Shackletons (mostly Mk3's but also a couple of Mk2's), Canberras (mostly B.2's but some B.6's and B.15's too - I did my final board on a Canberra), ex FTS Gnats and Hunter T.7 for fault finding and ex-Red Arrows Gnats for marshalling.  The mechanics did some flight servicing practice on Sea Vixen's and JP.3's but we techies never went near those because we would never be used to do such "menial" tasks as flight servicing - a policy which was plainly never discussed with the Squadrons as the very first thing I was taught when I arrived on the Squadron were composite flight servicings and ground handling.

 

Back to the main topic, nice work with the Hunter Ced:thumbsup2:

On 25/03/2018 at 14:34, bzn20 said:

That was an Argosy T2 Pete with massive n****e.....I mean Radome..

On 25/03/2018 at 14:38, bzn20 said:

It wasn't active anything apart from a Chipmunk flt for air experience jollies and Gliders .

On 25/03/2018 at 16:01, bzn20 said:

My Dad was there 1943-46. The Airfield was quite busy then. He remembered a pile of P47s flew in, amazed that the Pilots were all young women in the ATA. Alsoo had a B-17 that made an emergency landing coming back from daylight over Europe. One day they heard a B-17 making odd noises, looked up and it was smoking and engine feathered and the throttles were being moved back and forward. It was limping along badly up and downThe nose looked shot out, they thought another member of the crew was trying to fly it, pilots incapacitated , It just cleared the big hill behind Halton , Henderson Square and if you know it, Pimple Point. Minutes later a Yellow twin boomed plane (Vampire)whizzed over .. What the hell is that ? One of his number was an ex apprentice with DH and just smiled but couldn't tell them it was a classified secret . He found out when he got home to Manchester on his next Leave, another friend was an apprentice at Metropolitan Vickers and this 'plane just whizzed overhead..Thats what I saw at Halton, his mate wasn't so secretive. Some time before joined up Metrovicks had a secret workshop in Trafford Park, Manchester. His house was on top of a hill overlooking T/Park, On a Summer's night a Scream was all enveloping Rising to a high pitch, bang nothing. Didn't know what it was then. weeks later a Contrail way up in the sky ,big circle ,air raid siren going. Anti aircraft unit complete with balloons behind his house (lovely) was going full chat. Next night siren going , couple of  bangs in Trafford Park..Nothing else.. All Clear went. The Germans took out MetroVicks secret workshop with one or two bombs ! Never reported in the papers either.

OOPs gone off T a bit

I must get up to that museum...

bzn excuse my ignorance, but what's 'PSP under the grass'?

 

 

On 25/03/2018 at 07:38, Biggles87 said:

Looking good so far.

I like the Hunter ( and other ) servicing stories.

 

John

Thanks John :)

 

 

On 25/03/2018 at 13:17, LotusArenco said:

How about an in flight display of one of Pollock’s earlier escapades?

Airbrake open and tiny little 1/72 toilet rolls pouring out over RAF West Raynham.:D

 

Mart

Mart you're a teaser... unless I can find some 1/72 toilet paper :hmmm:

 

 

On 26/03/2018 at 07:36, Devilfish said:

It's not a NMF, it's a painted High-speed Silver.  As far as I can see, the very first photo that comes up on your link, the Hunters are silver painted underneath.

There may well have been a "changeover" period, as LAG was brought in when the paint type was changed in the late 60's, and there was no silver available in the new paint type.

17 hours ago, bzn20 said:

 

Is this Silver or LAG ?..I thought we were talking about the previous being NMF .These hadn't been painted at Halton straight from Sqn or storage at Kemble, the  link are 1989 photos and are exactly the same ones and paint scheme I was on in 70-72. Anyway  the first in the Google pic is when I was there,1971 and let me know what the paint is, thought it was grey so maybe they were Silver

 

http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=969437

17 hours ago, Devilfish said:

The original underside colour of the Hunters (and most other RAF fighters of the day) was High Speed Silver (although that wasn't an official name, I believe). This is a painted on colour, not a natural metal finish.  As someone else stated, they went to LAG from 1966, subject to going through major servicing.  The colour was changed to grey, because the paint type was changed (I forget from what to what), and they couldn't do a silver in the new type, so light grey was chosen as a replacement.  When you were there in 1970, it is likely that most were grey, but some could still have been silver.  That first photo to me looks more silver than grey, but I could be wrong (exposure etc)

17 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Heres a pic from 1959,91st entry at Halton.. This looks light grey. If it is makes no sense for the Silver to LAG date. Really confused now.. We got cans of DTD numbered paint , Section and Reference numbers and NATO Def Stan , forget colour descriptions. If the spec changes its the latest DTD, Sect/Ref Number or NATO Def Stan in the relevant AP/Manual that's correct not the colour.

 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/347973508692840249/

16 hours ago, malpaso said:

All the paint on that Hunter looks knackered so it could easily be worn out HSS.

Silver and other metallic paints used to weather badly to Matt, the metallicness almost used to wash out of them!

16 hours ago, perdu said:

Nice

 

Camera and very nice Hunter

 

If there is still any doubt Ced the pictures of the Hunters from Halton do look like HSS rather than the warmer earthy grey tone of LAG

 

(I would go for a silver in a washed out kind of way, maybe even a Vallejo Silver with a light varnish coat)

Thanks guys - I've ordered some LAG from Jamie so there may be a short pause before painting. I think I'll go for the grey as I only have HSS acrylic.

 

 

14 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

You lot are mad !!!

 

Ced the photos on the phone look great.  looking forward to seeing the hunter good progress so far.

 

All the best
Chris

Thanks Chris :)

 

 

I did do a little on the canopy on Sunday but Flickr 'lost' my photos. Actually my fault (possibly); the Flickr app said 'No Internet Connection' and, after checking the connection on other apps I went ahead and took some shots. They didn't upload. Thinking about it I guess this could mean 'no server connection'. I'll watch out for this in the future.

 

The story goes; canopy fit bad, plastic too thick, chisel out some at the back:

 

39236680590_24a87bdd12_z.jpg

 

... canopy fit good:

 

40152463765_cb12654893_z.jpg

 

I need to polish that up with some Micro-mesh and spent ages looking for those wand things with the round ends. Eventually convinced myself a pencil with MM wrapped around it would be just as good. Maybe.

 

Fuselage seam now sanded smooth. Bits gathered:

 

26174917427_6c6dc7d4be_z.jpg

 

No rudder. It's missing from the box (remember the loose bits?) I shall have to scratch one. Gulp.

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29 minutes ago, CedB said:

'PSP under the grass'?

Perforated Steel Plate..

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On 23/03/2018 at 1:58 PM, LotusArenco said:

IMy favourite quote from the story comes from one of the letters sent to Flight International April 1968 “Good luck to the pilot! I would rather trust the defence of this country to a handful of his type than to a great number of the timids.”

 

And I’m sure there was a quote from a judge or MP after the event, along the lines of “Back in my day, we flew whole squadrons under bridges!”

My Dad had a friend in the Nottingham branch of the British Legion who had started the war flying the Walrus from assorted battleships.  When I got my wings this guy insisted on buying me a large beer or three.  I’d heard rumours that he’d been prone to the occasional piece of outrageous flying, so I decided to ask him outright.  

 

Looped Shagbat?  Yes... starting at 1000’ (lunatic!).

Looped Swordfish round the centre span of the Forth (Rail) Bridge?  Yes, that too - “it cost me a right bollocking, but it was worth it”.

 

By the time I met him he was a Judge.  He’s long dead, but I think I’m saying he’d definitely have approved of the Tower Bridge thing!

 

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Spray Vallejo aluminium

Spray varnish to flatten

Carry on in future spraying Colourcoats which are simply the best

My recipe for Hunter happiness

 

 

I always remembered 'Pierced Steel Planking' but Perforated still works

 

When laid over grass the grass shoots come through the piercings and after a while looking at it side on, as in on the ground, it looks like grasslands but it takes the weight of heavy aircraft landing without sinkage

 

I recall it being laid for Harrier dispersed Ops 

 

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53 minutes ago, bzn20 said:

Perforated Steel Plate..

Thanks bzn - now I know! :)

 

48 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

My Dad had a friend in the Nottingham branch of the British Legion who had started the war flying the Walrus from assorted battleships.  When I got my wings this guy insisted on buying me a large beer or three.  I’d heard rumours that he’d been prone to the occasional piece of outrageous flying, so I decided to ask him outright.  

 

Looped Shagbat?  Yes... starting at 1000’ (lunatic!).

Looped Swordfish round the centre span of the Forth (Rail) Bridge?  Yes, that too - “it cost me a right bollocking, but it was worth it”.

 

By the time I met him he was a Judge.  He’s long dead, but I think I’m saying he’d definitely have approved of the Tower Bridge thing!

 

Thanks Crisp - great stuff! Impressive, looping around a bridge... that's the sort of Judge we need IMO :)

 

3 minutes ago, perdu said:

Spray Vallejo aluminium

Spray varnish to flatten

Carry on in future spraying Colourcoats which are simply the best

My recipe for Hunter happiness

 

 

I always remembered 'Pierced Steel Planking' but Perforated still works

 

When laid over grass the grass shoots come through the piercings and after a while looking at it side on, as in on the ground, it looks like grasslands but it takes the weight of heavy aircraft landing without sinkage

 

I recall it being laid for Harrier dispersed Ops 

 

Thanks Bill - so silver then eh? :)

 

 

I know some (including me) will be disappointed that I resisted my normal temptation to buy a tool specifically for sanding the inside of canopies. However, I did manage with micro-mesh bands wrapped around the rubber erasers from my 'pencil sander', finished with the liquid on a cotton bud:

 

40338408244_99e0a1a7b6_z.jpg

 

Of course, if I'd had half a brain, I would have sanded the plastic on the fuselage to avoid the polishing. :doh:

 

I measured the back of the fin (2mm) and, as I don't have any 2mm plasticard, sandwiched two thick bits and a thin bit:

 

41005146882_6d0bc6b470_n.jpg 39238184940_ac0189dc82_n.jpg

 

We'll see if that bodge works later once the glue's dry. I am not confident but hey, it's a learning experience...

 

The wings clicked together nicely and with a bit of, ahem, encouragement, the flaps went in too:

 

26176427887_801b4fbeea_z.jpg

 

I'll decide whether to fill or sihrsc the LEs later (oooh, get me, talking like a proper modeller!)

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56 minutes ago, CedB said:

No rudder. It's missing from the box (remember the loose bits?) I shall have to scratch one. Gulp.

Hello Ced, good to see some modelling by you.. Yes, Airfix at that period and I started to hate them then. The kit in that box should from somewhere inbetween 1985 to 1989. Airfix were worst on their service and quality controls ( Buy two to make one was obviously their strategy) Broken, lost parts and bad runners on the parts. Clear parts were loose, heavily scratched and often also not fully formed. This luckily changed a few years later. So good luck with scratching the rudder. Cheers

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Thanks Benedikt :) Missing parts may be the reason so many people learn to scratch build so 'swings and roundabouts' I guess.

 

Thanks Bill, very kind :)

 

 

Sandwich glued to the fin:

 

41047814281_e93dfe63be_z.jpg

 

41006043872_5aa566e032_z.jpg

 

Purposely flush(ish) on one side, the other is quite sticky-outy (to use the technical term).

 

sihrsc action, small file and rifflers, sand and polish then a scribe for the trim tab and it's good enough for the ceiling:

 

26179234087_c7a275d3b5_z.jpg

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