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An African Safari - entered voluntary liquidation


Mjwomack

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There are so many reasons why I shouldn't enter this GB but as has been said, You can never capture Africa's heart, but it will capture yours; so he I go...

Roden's Bristol Britannia with the markings for African Safari of Kenya; a short-lived operation that did flights between Europe and Nairobi

PXL-20210216-140434004.jpg 

 

Maintaining may usual standard for GBs I won't be starting for a week. Once I do though it'll be straight OOB, because my New Year's Resolution is to keep it simple. But that's not to say there can't be some sprue fondling first

 

Britannia-Parts.jpg 

 

I'm not a fan of clear windows so something will have to be done; not sure what for the cockpit, but there's time yet.

 

PXL-20210216-140651622.jpg 

 

Not too shabby, bit of flash to take care of, and I'm mighty relieved that I don't have to fit individual blades on the propellors because that really bores me and I don't see the point of it! No detail in the u/c bays but that doesn't bother me. What does bother me, but I knew this would happen is the size of that decal on the tail, especially as I don't hear glowing reports about Roden decals. But I'm looking forward to the ride.

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2 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

I'm looking forward to the ride.

Thankfully you've brought an airliner so there'll be enough seats for us to join you :D 

 

2 hours ago, mitchem said:

Evocative box art :thumbsup2:

That's a good point Mike. It really is :wub:

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Ah ha, good old 5Y-ALT :). She ended her days at Biggin Hill, as did a number of old Britts. I remember seeing her there in 1970 during the Battle of Britain day air show :). A great choice!

 

Martin

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26 minutes ago, CliffB said:

African Safari is a new to me and great that we've got some wildlife markings in the GB too :winkgrin:

New to me as well! I had been looking for something air Tanzania or east African airways (admission that I've been looking at a GB I don't have time to enter very seriously 😜)

Even the mighty tinternet doesn't have much on them

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Here she is at Gatwick :) https://www.na3t.org/air/photo/CC00157 
 

 

I was wrong, she was scrapped at Stansted. I got confused because a few Britts (Air Spain, for example) did go through Biggin and I thought it was for scrapping. 
 

 

Martin

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Engine start!!

Took me a while to realise that the instructions are right...

PXL-20210223-211125505.jpg 

 

The horizontal stabiliser is symmetrical and it is a part 1D and a 2D on each side, and there I was worrying about labelling the port and starboard ones and not putting them on upside down. One less thing to worry about as the jingle goes.

 

All the 'clever' bits of modelling I learnt from BM, so thanks to whoever first mentioned that when you're filling in the cabin windows who can save sanding time (and filler) with some masking tape along the fuselage...

 

PXL-20210223-211051740.jpg  

 

What hasn't come out in the photo is the curious texture of the fuselage skin. It might be called orange peel texture, it's certainly not as smooth as a baby's bottom that's for sure! Personally I quite like it, but it won't lend itself to a highly polished gloss finish. Though maybe that'll give an appropriate slightly faded look, a sort of satin finish.

 

The more Roden models I make the more I realise that they don't waste plastic on locating pins..

PXL-20210223-211702830.jpg 

 

Basically it's one at either end, whether that's something short, or the whole length of the fuselage! For the fuselage, I'm planning on using a vac-form trick and add a lip of plastic-strut to help everything align. But before that, I can see where the plastic that wasn't used on the locating lugs was used in those massive lugs. Time for a new knife blade!

 

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They may not waste plastic on such trivialities and frivolous luxuries as locating pins but they're certainly generous with it in the release pin lugs :o 

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1 hour ago, Col. said:

They may not waste plastic on such trivialities and frivolous luxuries as locating pins but they're certainly generous with it in the release pin lugs :o 

Good heavens to Betsy, I have misread the instructions; those were the locating pins🤪

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PXL-20210228-202941296.jpg 

Nose ballast fixed, windows filled and locating lugs upgraded- fuselage ready to be whacked together.

Purists look away, though you were warned earlier, that I've made no attempt to improve the 'limited' u/c bay 'detailling'

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
13 hours ago, zebra said:

Excellent choice, will be following this one

I'm flattered. It's the boring sand and fill routine at the moment. Got a schedule to keep though because I'm hosting the anything but im GB in a couple of weeks

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22 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

I'm flattered. It's the boring sand and fill routine at the moment. Got a schedule to keep though because I'm hosting the anything but im GB in a couple of weeks

 

I follow you always be most boring part of modelling, 😬 but then sometimes the only model of the type that you want to build is the only game in town.

 

cheers

Jes

Edited by Touvdal
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I'm still here, sanding, scraping and generally 'amusing myself'

PXL-20210316-172110496.jpg 

 

The canopy transparency 'drops' into place, and is a tidy fit which is pleasing. But of a dink to be smoothed out there where I got over-zealous.

 

Sometimes the universe smiles

PXL-20210316-170303876.jpg 

 

For light (bright yellow) relief from the above, I started on the propellors and masked up the tips. Then I realised that I had masking tape of the right width to be able to mask off both ends of the blades in one goes; time to find some steel paint while I'm about it

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On 2/16/2021 at 8:35 PM, mitchem said:

Evocative box art 

 

Evocative if you're at 43,000' but pretty scary down where the Britannias few!

I came out of Singapore in 2018 in a 787 when we climbed to 43,000' and still didn't top the thunderhead looming above us. That was quite a bumpy fight!

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The light this morning lent itself to a reproduction of the evocative box art...

PXL-20210321-094401336.jpg 

 

I've reached my boredom threshold for sanding and filling and whacked the wings on. It's really come home to me as to how shapely the Britannia was. Off to the paint shop now, I've realised that rattle-can and camera phone is a lot less forgiving than a hairy stick and no camera!!

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Back out of the paint shed...

 PXL-20210324-133055871.jpg 

 

For all the spring sunshine here today it was a grey day!  The colour chart in the kit has the lower half as a lovely blue-grey, shame its not that colour. The box art has a more convincing shade, but seems to be affected by the evocative lighting in the painting, because after a happy session looking at pictures on the internet, of the planes of course!! I settled upon RAF Ocean Grey and it seems close enough. Certainly as accurate as I am.

I always think a plane looks curious when it's mostly painted but with no cheat lines etc on it.

 

On we go!

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