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The true old times are dead (1/72 92 Squadron Lightning F.2)


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44 minutes ago, Procopius said:

and, after she told Grant not to say it, he replied, cooly, "I'm saying it in my head, over and over." 

 

And Grant wins, with a technical knockout!

 

Lightning's coming along nicely mate B) 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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19 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Small pieces of sodium. Apparently. Does the trick. At least with seagulls. 

 

I think that would work with pretty much any living creature...!

 

And yes, Avatar was terrible.  It made precious little sense, looked awful, had a plot thinner than 1997 Naomi Campbell, was too long and just sucked, in the original (nautical) sense.  Very poor.

 

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I like avatar & recently re-viewed it so I'm up to speed when the new one comes out, loved it just as much as the first time. I still glance in the direction of Alpha Centauri on a clear evening & wonder what the blue folk have been up to. Gonna find out soon. ;)  :D 

I thought the shock cones were green fibreglass, or was that just later ones.

Steve.

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Ah, Avatar - Space Pocahontas where the main resource is actually unironically called "unobtanium". 

 

Recently I ran into an exgirlfriend at a birthday, and she gushed about how deeply spiritual she found it. "Ah yes, that's why we broke up..". 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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My feelings for Avatar pale into mild distaste compared to my hatred of Love Actually. And guess what the UK’s favourite seasonal film is?

 

I have been sworn to silence on said topic when we visit my sis-in-law next weekend.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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35 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

No spoilers please…

Back when the film was first on general release, I mentioned to a colleague that I'd seen it.

"How was it?", she asked.

"Terrible", I replied.

"How so?"

"The ship sinks".

Followed by a swatting. Probably deserved.

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The Lightning is coming on, I can understand your feelings about NMF on short run. The P1A was resin, and the finish was not perfect, and my current project, the Pavla Supermarine S6B had large areas of an aluminium finish and is distinctly short run. 

Avatar is great for CGI, but extremely tedious from any other point if view. It and Titanic seem to be a tribute to ego over creativity. Some of it seems to be straight lift of a 'Night to Remember', including some of the dialogue. The overall effect seems to be a somewhat overblown and hackneyed love story with an incidental shipwreck in the background. My brother saw and said he got the stage when he thought 'I wish this ship would bloody well sink' 

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7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I thought the shock cones were green fibreglass, or was that just later ones.

Correct, they are fibreglass in every instance - they house the radar, so have to be transparent to microwave radiation. Also interesting is that over time, the radiation burns off the green coating in patches, which then need to be touched up with new, fresh green coating, leading to a patchy and weathered appearance.

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15 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

My feelings for Avatar pale into mild distaste compared to my hatred of Love Actually. And guess what the UK’s favourite seasonal film is?

 

Over here it benefits from what is known as the "Piers Morgan Effect", where the accents allow us to disregard the content and pretend it's really high-class entertainment.

 

11 hours ago, John Laidlaw said:

Correct, they are fibreglass in every instance - they house the radar, so have to be transparent to microwave radiation. Also interesting is that over time, the radiation burns off the green coating in patches, which then need to be touched up with new, fresh green coating, leading to a patchy and weathered appearance.

 

Indeed, though the very tippy-tip tip of the shock cone is metal. The turned metal shock cone for the model comes with the metal intake ring and adds some noseweight, as well as being beautifully symetrical.

 

I started work on the cockpit tub tonight.

 

PXL_20221128_021103466

 

The etch, amazingly, fits quite well, though the two side panels have rather vague placement guides, and it took me two goes to figure it out, and I sanded the bejeezus out of the styrene backing for the instrument panel.

 

Incredibly, the seat fits:

 

PXL_20221128_015830253

 

I've not glued it (or the coaming) in, because (a) I need to finish painting it, and (b) I want to wait until the tub is in the fuselage, so I can confirm canopy fit.

 

Then, brimming with misplaced zeal, I added the tub to a fuselage half.

 

PXL_20221128_025615076

 

 

To fix my oversanding of the radar bullet, in true 1970s modelling style, I added a piece of thick plasticard, so if we choose, we can delude ourselves that some proper modelling is going on here.

 

PXL_20221128_025650640

 

It was then sanded to shape:

 

PXL_20221128_032443138

 

It actually appears to work!

 

PXL_20221128_032433014

 

(Some final refinements will still be needed, of course. I may -- but probably won't -- attempt some Daco-inspired superdetailing here.)

 

In a fun discovery, Sword has left any instructions for adding the cable ducts -- which are separate parts -- out of the building directions. This would be less of an issue if it didn't appear, from the length of the three pieces for each side in the kit, that one is expected to cut part of one off and use it, as otherwise it's impossible to make the short cable ducts for F.1A and F.2 Lightnings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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53 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I may -- but probably won't -- attempt some Daco-inspired superdetailing here.)

Ah yes, the double edged Sword (see what I did there?) of gorgeous references like the DACO volume. Both a blessing and a bane, I tell you. Back in the day we had to carve our own reference books from throwaway pieces of oak, and we were happy, dagnabbit!

 

Coming along nicely!, that pit looks the canine's danglies from over here.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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8 hours ago, Procopius said:

The turned metal shock cone for the model comes with the metal intake ring and adds some noseweight, as well as being beautifully symetrical.

And pointy! A much more elegant solution than stuffing the plastic cone with weight.

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On 25/11/2022 at 00:58, Procopius said:

Please do! I am over a barrel here in the stupidest and most self-inflicted manner.

 

No luck, the dealer sold my old Sword F.3 kit at a recent model show. Sorry.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Just now, Navy Bird said:

 

No luck, the dealer sold my old Sword F.3 kit at a recent model show. Sorry.

 

No worries, Bill! I'll just have to buy ten when they're re-released, then forget all about them and sell them in a decade's time. 🎵 The circle of liiiiiiife 🎵

 

51 minutes ago, John Laidlaw said:

And pointy! A much more elegant solution than stuffing the plastic cone with weight.

 

I will, however, be stuffing the rest of the bullet with weight, somewhat complicated by the fact that there's nothing walling it off from the gear bay, so glue can seep down.

 

8 hours ago, Hook said:

Ah yes, the double edged Sword (see what I did there?) of gorgeous references like the DACO volume. Both a blessing and a bane, I tell you.

 

Indeed! I'm considering buying their book for the F-4, but...can I afford to?

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6 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Indeed! I'm considering buying their book for the F-4, but...can I afford to?

 

Has that ever stopped you before, ye man of innumerable stashness?    :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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2 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Has that ever stopped you before, ye man of innumerable stashness?    :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

Sadly quite numerate these days, I sold off almost all of it in 2020. I have less than a hundred kits now. Which I appreciate is still a ton, but nowhere near where it was.

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55 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Indeed! I'm considering buying their book for the F-4, but...can I afford to?

Their US Navy Phantom book is really lovely. Come on, you know you need it in your life.

 

Incidentally, I once made the rookie mistake of showing Mrs. Hook what my Jake Melampy Phantom book went for second hand on Amazon... immediately her eyes lit up.

 

"Why don't we sell it off?" "Well...it's mine..?". 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

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40 minutes ago, perdu said:

"Well it's mine"

 

They don't like that much do they?  

Not particularly, no. 

 

Then again, I make no fuss over her apparant need for five different raincoats (at least), all of which she maintains are absolutely essential for her continuous survival.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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Mrs P is unfortunately extremely ascetic, and wants and needs little. Aside from babies, and all the modelling-related extravagances of the past decade haven't come close to what we've shelled out for even one of those.

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I know the feeling. Mrs T is not one for buying anything if it can be avoided (largely because it might involve shopping). Basically when nudity threatens, she will grudgingly go clothes shopping. It does make Christmas shopping a bit easier for me as she wants more or less the same thing every year. 

I am not sure that matching the cost of raising a child to the overall costs of our modelling is a particularly profitable exercise domestically. Mrs T is fairly tolerant of my foibles, but I think that is because

a) we no longer have to spend money on the offspring. They are going to have wait until we die to get all the goodies

b) we have a fair amount of disposable income at present and few outgoings

c) it keeps my quiet and occupied. Mrs T as a very experienced senior nurse and says it is good for my health. 

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48 minutes ago, Mr T said:

Mrs T as a very experienced senior nurse and says it is good for my health. 

As I said to Mrs Hook, "Well dear, hanging out on Britmodeller is cheaper than therapy and less allaround hassle than a shooting spree."

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

Edited by Hook
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Ha! I dug my Sword F3 kit out of the stash, where it has lingered in recent years.

Taking a look inside the box, it has two, repeat, two photoetch frets with the cockpit stuff.

Your need is greater than mine, so pm me with what you want - the spare fret or the kit with two frets - the choice is yours.

No money will change hands for this. If you feel the need, contribute to a charity of your choice. Or keep things closer to home and buy the family a tub of ice cream or something (probably not at this time of year; teach the boys about deferred pleasures).

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