Can You Hear the Thunder? (1/72 Airfix RAAF Spitfire Vc)

[Graham Boak]

Not only narrow bulges but horn-balanced elevators?

[Procopius]

Okay! I've been busy this week being exhausted by my bestial children, revising one piece of paid writing (and being invited to add 200 words to it, a whole twelve extra dollars!), finishing up the first draft of another (which, because the universe seeks to balance itself, I can't seem to get above 200 words below word count; no gain without a loss), forgetting to run the dishwasher multiple nights in a row, and sitting in the living room after the boys go to bed so I can periodically charge upstairs and tell them that their baby sister is sleeping, and could they maybe fight over a colored pencil with slightly less ardor than the Spartans at Thermopylae? Sometimes I even turn on the TV, only to find the grinning jackals I've fathered creeping downstairs, their highly selective children's hearing-- which cannot detect someone begging them to just put their god damned socks on so we can go PLEASE at two hundred decibels and two paces-- having picked up the faint whine of roused electrons as they flit across the screen. "We need some water." "I need to find a book." No you don't, you don't even drink the water, you just lob the thermos behind your bed. (Mrs P used to insist on sending them off to bed with a thermos of it each, but finally desisted after I found eight(!!!) of them under the bunk bed, each breeding exciting new forms of life that couldn't have been more insensate to reason than the boys.) 

 

However, over this week, I did get some work done:

 

The cannon bay panels are about as sanded down and blended as I care to make them before the next round of priming inevitably shows my hideous failures on that front. The wheel wells and multiple other areas were also sprayed interior grey green.

 

 

Predictably, though the wheel wells were probably just the underside colour by this time, I forgot to spray several parts of the model that should be grey green, the curse of modelling only after you've gotten everyone in bed and washed all the dishes and swept up the seeds from the bloody bird which refuses to die. Mrs P was THIS CLOSE to buying a cat for the kids for Christmas, but then remembered that cats eat birds. I hadn't forgotten, but was opting to keep schtum, as a thought experiment. It fell to me to break it to the kids. ("I feel like everyone's against me on this," she complained to me. "They are!" I cheerfully replied.) 

 

"Kids," I said, "I'm sorry. We were going to get a cat, but mom was worried it could hurt her bird." 

General exclamations of dismay, etc, followed by Winston asking "How long do birds live?"

"Great question! In the wild, doves live three or four years," --because god hates them as much as I do-- "but in captivity, they can live ten, or even twenty. Beck's nine now, so it might not be for another ten years." 

 

Grant and Win wobbled a little unsteadily, like men with the taste of ashes in their mouths.

 

"You'd be in college, Win, and Grant, you'd be seventeen, almost there," I helpfully informed them, in a manner that suggested that whatever happened to the bird, it couldn't come back to me. But so far he is still with us.

 

On 1/29/2025 at 3:50 PM, noelh said:

I know that's not very reassuring but it does get better.  It has to, because I'm 65 and am no longer up to it. Yes I married late. 

 

I'll be 57 when Madeleine goes off to college, assuming we aren't all foraging for rats in the irradiated rubble of our home by then, of course, and every day I think to myself that I am far, far too old to be doing this. I don't think I could survive being a stay at home dad (I mean, I am in a technical sense, but only because I work from home); on Thursdays, Mrs P has a late meeting, so I have to driver her and the kids to school in our sole car, drive home (invariably starting work late because as soon as my children get ready to leave after hounding them for what feels like a geological era in the mornings, Mrs P retreats to the bathroom to have herself a little phone time and everything falls apart again), and then leave work early to get them at 1530 and watch them until Mrs P gets home around 1830, by which time I'm exhausted. Unfortunately Mrs P has a curious wasting disease that strikes at times like these, where nobody can be more tired or feeling worse than her, so she usually then has me make her dinner and retreats to the shower, leaving me with our children once more, the youngest of whom is not yet weaned (because Mrs P believes children should be weaned only after they're old enough to write a book about how traumatic it was for them, apparently) and regards the return and subsequent departure of Mommy as a catastrophe on par with an eschatological event. As Madeleine is the size (and density) of a truly spectacular Christmas ham, this can get quite painful for daddy if she decides to careen angrily into him.

 

On 1/30/2025 at 8:30 AM, Brandy said:

I'm looking forward to seeing the Spit come together, but slightly dreading the tales that may accompany it.....

 

 

That's why there's pictures, to distract from the words, old bean. 

 

On 1/29/2025 at 10:29 PM, ModelingEdmontonian said:

You could publish the prose in your thread. I'm here to read you talk about suburban dad life, but the Spitfire is looking great.

 

Mrs P has proven to be in the past less than amused by my writing about our domestic idyll; Mrs P has what is generally an excellent sense of humour, except where she herself is concerned, as Winston learned last year, when he attempted to imitate her in an obnoxious manner while she (who like Grant is also dyslexic) was reading to Grant. Much like Obi-Wan sensing the destruction of Alderaan, I heard a voice cry out in terror, then go suddenly silent. 

 

 

 

 

[Whofan]

Good evening Ed, welcome back,  I was only thinking a day or two ago that I hadn’t seen anything from you here for a long, long time!!

 

As others have said, it’s the descriptions of family life that are enhanced by the modelling, because most of us here have been through something similar to your experiences !

 

I now have a 5 1/2 year old whirlwind of a grandson who’s propensity for finding the one thing that mustn’t be broken and breaking it can be very disheartening.

 

We do have the advantage however of handing the grandson back!

 

 

[Michael louey]

Hi @Procopius

 

@Graham Boak's post triggered me to check photos for Caldwell's Vc and I found this picture (which I've seen before in magazines) on the IPMS NSW site:

 

http://magazine.ipmsnsw.com/35-1/hpm/hpm p2.htm

 

It seems to show that JL394 also had late style horn balanced elevators. This leads on to the implication that most if not all the later delivered Vc's with narrow cannon bulges had the horn balanced elevators as well. As far as I recall, neither the High Planes upgrade or the base Airfix kit have these tailplanes/elevators. I suppose you could scribe them onto the existing parts. Another option might be using the elevators/tailplane from the Eduard Mk VIII/IX kit if you have one - I seem to recall there are multiple versions in the kit so you wouldn't be robbing Peter to pay Paul if you choose the right subject with the Eduard kit. The fit of the Eduard part might need fixing as I recall the join is quite different to how Airfix does it. Looking at you last photo, it seems you haven't progressed to this stage so should be all good.

 

Also of note - in this front on picture is that this airframe seemed to have covers on the wheels (at least when the picture was taken)

 

http://magazine.ipmsnsw.com/35-1/hpm/hpm p1.htm

 

Cheers

 

Michael

 

Edited February 1 by Michael louey

[Mr T]

Welcome back Edward, I was thinking that you had been very quiet the other day. Nice to read your domestic journal with the odd bit of modelling thrown in. So you are approaching 42, which of course, is the Answer to the Life Universe and Everything. Absolutely of no comfort to you to say things do get better, I went through a period of not really feeling in control of my life or destiny. I think most people do. I married at 22 to a doctor who realised she didn't like people (well live ones) very much, and that apparently included me. I married the current Mrs T at 36 and our first child was born when I was 40, Mrs T being 30. Son is now working for a conversancy company and Daughter is a  Primary School teacher, both graduates. So I do have some sympathy for what happens in family life. All small children seem to grow up with no common sense or concept of consequences, irrespective of intelligence, until suddenly one day they acquire both. 

[Procopius]

So I managed to sneak some work in here and there over the weekend. 

 

 

Of course, as soon as the kids got in the tub for an early bath and Mrs P was off to watch them, and I really had a chance to get a head of steam going, my sister, who's finally moved out of my parents' house at 38, stopped by for a visit. I would be more annoyed, but she brought Key Lime pie with her. 

 

 

It was exquisite, and tart enough to cut glass. Mrs P, who's a bit of an ascetic, liked it so much she had another slice for breakfast.

 

Now, I had meant to do a leisurely, methodical job on the cockpit, but in some (most, some might uncharitably say) ways, I still suffer from the problems of a teenaged boy, and with a fumble and an abrupt spasm, I assembled the cockpit tub. 

 

 

 

It does not benefit from close inspection. Very, very stupidly, I had waited until then to try to do the harness straps, only to realize I was out of photoetch ones, and that I had forgotten, if I even knew, how to use those little gummy Eduard ones. Eventually, after destroying the main harness for both of my last two, I resorted to a mixture of the lap belts from Eduard and the ABS plastic Fine Molds harnesses, which really, really benefit from being glued to the seat before it's painted. It also meant I never applied a wash or did any other cool things that would result in sexy cockpit photos. I console myself with the knowledge that barely anything can be seen when it's closed up.

 

On 1/31/2025 at 4:25 PM, Whofan said:

I now have a 5 1/2 year old whirlwind of a grandson who’s propensity for finding the one thing that mustn’t be broken and breaking it can be very disheartening.

 

 

 

On 2/1/2025 at 2:51 AM, Mr T said:

All small children seem to grow up with no common sense or concept of consequences, irrespective of intelligence, until suddenly one day they acquire both. 

 

It really is extraordinary. Winston is currently banned from my grotto, because every time he enters it, he's told to not touch anything, especially if he doesn't know what it does. Unfortunately, he's apparently an experiential learner, because I not that long ago turned around to find him using my little razor saw to cut a groove into the concrete floor, which not incidentally removed every tooth on that side of the blade. Or I'll be working and suddenly hear a crash, as a precariously balanced pile of likely-never-to-be-painted 3d prints crashes to the floor. It just keeps happening. Or the dreaded "I wish I had that," as he points to one kit or another. I did buy him a 1/48 Trumpeter Wyvern a while ago, because he was obsessed with the working contraprops on my 1/72 one (which he loved to death as a smaller boy) and wanted my replacement kit. Once he built the props, he was saddened to discover that yet again, his imagination outpaced reality, for there was no way to motorise them (that I was willing to entertain), and it lies, incomplete, in the craft supplies closet.

[Navy Bird]

Edward is back and he's building a Spitfire. All is well with the world. Except, of course, with the current inhabitants of the hallowed halls of government in the fair land of Uncle Sam. I'm a little worried there.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Mr T]

I have only had Key Lime pie once, in 1991, when we visited Mrs T's cousin in South Carolina. It was OK, but not a patch on the Hot Fudge Sundae we had on honeymoon. I am not an asectic when it come to food. 

[Fatcawthorne]

On 1/31/2025 at 10:00 PM, Procopius said:

Okay! I've been busy this week being exhausted by my bestial children, revising one piece of paid writing (and being invited to add 200 words to it, a whole twelve extra dollars!), finishing up the first draft of another (which, because the universe seeks to balance itself, I can't seem to get above 200 words below word count; no gain without a loss), forgetting to run the dishwasher multiple nights in a row, and sitting in the living room after the boys go to bed so I can periodically charge upstairs and tell them that their baby sister is sleeping, and could they maybe fight over a colored pencil with slightly less ardor than the Spartans at Thermopylae?

Welcome back to the other madhouse Mr P!!  Now we know how much we have to crowd-fund to get you writing just for us, mmmm just for us!! 

[Trumpton_Orbital]

On 03/02/2025 at 14:59, Procopius said:

she brought Key Lime pie with her

Amazing - what scale was it?

 

Spitfire is looking good so far!

 

Cheers

 

Paul.

[Procopius]

...and then silence.

 

Sorry for the lapse, they keep happening. My employer is heavily funded by grants from the federal government, particularly the State Department; we use the money for civil society programs in other countries (e.g. sending young women to law school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; anticorruption workshops for the judiciary in the Caribbean; and helping former Soviet bloc countries establish judicial codes based on the rule of law), operating on the theory that for the global hegemon, a more just and stable world is a net benefit. Obviously, if you follow the news, there are people in the USA who disagree right now, and the organization I work for one is one of several currently suing the federal government for the release of monies already allocated to us by congress. As I run our social media channels, this has obviously taken a lot of my time. I'm sure reasonable men might differ about the need for such things, but right now I feel far from reasonable on the subject. 

 

As such I've been under a certain amount of stress between rushing stuff out the door and moderating social media comments, and haven't had the fine motor skills necessary for modelling. Additionally, I've found myself roped into becoming the event runner for a large game of Battletech's Alpha Strike in the indeterminate near term and have to paint a lot of little metal robots, which mercifully do not require much small motor work, but do need a lot of bench space. 

 

Right now the words of the German anti-Nazi and monarchist diarist Friedrich Percyval Reck-Malleczewen are much in my mind: “But now it begins to appear that a number of things which were supposed to have been finished are coming to life again, as such things do, on occasion: good and evil, the gods and the evil spirits of greed and bestiality. I do not know if the end of the world is at hand, as Dostoyevsky said. But this I do know, that these are years of a turning in human affairs…” 

 

I've felt for a while that the 2020s are my generation's 1970s, full of uncertainty, turmoil, fear, and the slow and disruptive changing over of the old order. British and American political life both were never the same again after them, and I wonder how this will play out. I have to remind myself that every decade births the world anew, and that what is certain and settled now will not always be so, inshallah. But I'm old, and tired. I just want to raise my children and do my job and eke out some joy from my life without interference from people intent on destroying everything and promising to rebuild the world anew and better but only fulfilling the first half of their promises, as is invariably the case. 

 

[silverfox63]

Edward.

I feel for you in these troubled and uncertain times. I wish you the power of character and of will to come out the other side with hopefully few scars.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Terry1954]

Welcome back Edward, I've missed you ............... we've all missed you!.

 

Very pleased to see your family thrives (they really do, no matter what you think), and that you are building something, a Spitfire no less, and it is going well (of course).

 

As for your general concerns over events of late, I am among those friends on the other side of the pond who share such concerns .............. if that helps 😉

 

I've not been too active on here myself (in terms of constructing much), save for a little more work on the Old Buck P-51, and a dabble into the AFV world with my Ukrainian MAZ which will be carrying a US supplied Bradley. Links below if you fancy some distractions, and you may see some friendly faces!

 

Take care and chin up!

 

T.

 

 

 

 

[Bedders]

There is certainly some crazy stuff going on, on both sides of the pond. But more importantly, you've made a nice job of those wing blisters. KBO, as Winston might say.

 

J

[Hook]

Hey man,

 

just a quick note to express my sincere hope that things are a bit less gloomy on your end at the moment.

 

Hang in there.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Procopius]

1 hour ago, Hook said:

Hey man,

 

just a quick note to express my sincere hope that things are a bit less gloomy on your end at the moment.

 

Hang in there.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

 

I keep meaning to post, but I've accomplished nothing on the model, so feel quite sheepish. I'm still alive, and--unlike about half of my colleagues at work--remain employed as well, but it was a close-run thing; nobody at the association is getting a cost of living increase, which means that in real terms I make about 10% less now than I did at the start of 2020. My employer has been badly hammered by the current administration, in ways both substantive and so childishly petty as to beggar the imagination. 

 

The kids have gotten older as well, something I had been informed they did when I first had them, but which has become terribly real, as a combination of laissez-faire "Summer Mrs P" and the simple progression of time, that destroyer, has resulted in bedtimes approaching eight at night for Madeleine and sometimes as late as ten for the boys. The boys have many fine qualities and I hope to see them for myself some day, but when unsupervised, they're inventively, crushingly, and amazingly destructively stupid; to look away even for an instant is to risk a western movie style fistfight, complete with someone flying through a plate glass window and a whinnying horse. They're also very big into Warhammer, which I stupidly introduced to them, and if you think it's expensive in isolation, just imagine when there are two little boys clamoring for it and evaluating, with beady little eyes, the love their parents feel for them based on whether or not they got exactly what their brother did. It's exhausting. 

 

Win found an old Space Marine codex from 1999 (which seems much more recent than it is) and was quite taken with their two-photo spread of scratchbuilding an outpost. Despite my protestations that now we just 3D-print such things, my future Butlerian jihadist decided he would make one himself, using my materials, of course. 

 

 

All of my remaining stock of plasticard later:

 

 

He asked me to help him prime and apply texture paint, but I foolishly assumed that he wanted the benefit of my expertise, rather than for someone else to apply it according to his directions, and after I artfully added some gravel and grass tufts he had a screaming fit until I suggested (quite loudly, in what was far from my finest hour as a parent) that if he spoke to me again that evening, it would be his final action on this planet prior to entering a stable low-earth orbit. 

 

 

His stone-faced mother informed me he would be using my materials to complete the rest of it, and so I bid adieu to the rest of my stupidly expensive tiny rocks as they were inexpertly dumped wholesale onto the model. Huzzah.

 

I also entered a Space Marine robot I'd painted in some sort of contest, which will surely end in tears, as there's a weirdly large number of people who paint angry little men from the future professionally. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm excited at the prospect of the new IBG Spitfire I, but also wonder if I'll ever end up building one, given my current time availability. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I'm still alive, and--unlike about half of my colleagues at work--remain employed as well,

which is very good to know.  

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

so feel quite sheepish

I suspect your tales of parenthood are greatly appreciated, either by those in the throes of it, or those past it, tales of modelling are an added bonus   

Probably a lot cheaper for you then getting a therapist as well !   Its good to let it out

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

Warhammer,

This may amuse/bemuse...

This.....

 

I know the cover artist, he used to live in the road.... He did a lot for 2000 AD comic, which I bought for many years.

He uses people for faces etc in Photoshop,  I saw this and asked if he needed another face... One day he took some photos, and so I have ended up in a few of his drawings, including this...

Just the head, unfortunately I don't have suit of red war armour etc

I was quite shocked now as well to see what Amazon are trying to flog copies for... I got one as freebie too.

 

cheers

T

[Stew Dapple]

It's always good to hear from you Edward, Spitfire or no, I enjoy your writing in any case and I'm glad to hear things have at least apparently levelled off a bit; you have my best wishes and hopes for further improvements in time. 

 

You've done a lovely job on the Dreadnought/Terminator fellow (sorry, I have little to no knowledge of the terminology), please let us know how you get on in the competition as I know that even if you don't win you will be able to wrangle an amusing anectdote from it.

 

I'm genuinely pleased to see you back, don't be a stranger, eh?

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[Steve Coombs]

On 8/1/2025 at 11:11 PM, Procopius said:

I also entered a Space Marine robot I'd painted in some sort of contest, which will surely end in tears, as there's a weirdly large number of people who paint angry little men from the future professionally. 

 

 

 

Ooh, a Death Guard Leviathan Siege Dreadnought!
I'm trying to avoid Horus Heresy stuff, though the Saturnine set is testing my resolve.
It shouldn't be too long before I can get my hands on the updated Nemesis Dreadknights as single items.
Good luck with the contest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Procopius]

On 8/1/2025 at 9:36 PM, Stew Dapple said:

It's always good to hear from you Edward, Spitfire or no, I enjoy your writing in any case and I'm glad to hear things have at least apparently levelled off a bit; you have my best wishes and hopes for further improvements in time. ...

 

I'm genuinely pleased to see you back, don't be a stranger, eh?

 

It sounds very silly, but I miss you all when I'm not here posting regularly. The period when I was regularly posting on here and building models was one of the happiest of my life, with my visit to Telford being the culminating moment. Time seems so short now, and I get so tired that it's hard to work on something and write in the same evening and remain a functioning person the following day. Also, I missed your birthday, my apologies!

 

On 8/1/2025 at 5:25 PM, Troy Smith said:

I know the cover artist, he used to live in the road.... He did a lot for 2000 AD comic, which I bought for many years.

He uses people for faces etc in Photoshop,  I saw this and asked if he needed another face... One day he took some photos, and so I have ended up in a few of his drawings, including this...

Just the head, unfortunately I don't have suit of red war armour etc

 

 

But you are 7-8 feet tall and have fangs, right Troy? 

 

On 8/2/2025 at 6:00 PM, Steve Coombs said:

Ooh, a Death Guard Leviathan Siege Dreadnought!
I'm trying to avoid Horus Heresy stuff, though the Saturnine set is testing my resolve.
It shouldn't be too long before I can get my hands on the updated Nemesis Dreadknights as single items.
Good luck with the contest.

 

I switched to Heresy completely in part because a man can only be defeated in deployment and outfoxed while fighting around a cluster of L-shaped ruins so many times before he teeters on the brink (to say nothing of the rules changes every three months, when it takes me literal years to paint enough angry little men), and also because there's a plethora of...ah...alternative models available through 3D printing that can greatly defray the costs of making an army. The Death Guard force that big chunky lad is part of consists of a second Leviathan and a Contemptor, the three together running something like $200 rapidly-devaluing USD, and then  35 little infantry guys, ten terminators, two taller space marines who therefore must be in leadership positions, two Land Raiders, and a Rhino, all 3D-printed for the princely sum of about $45 worth of resin (if we ignore the set-up costs...), which would run about $680 if purchased retail. One can see why GW comes down on the file creators so hard, and why a man might be tempted to fiddle with toxic goop in the first place. 

 

 

 

 

I think they look quite convincing, myself.

 

I spent yesterday afternoon slowly coming down with a 24-hour bug (not serious enough to keep me from working, not minor enough to be wholly ignored) and working on a surprise for Win, whose favourite Space Marines are the Salamanders, who canonically are very like him in their desire to help the weak (his brother and sister do not live in the grim darkness of the umpty-umpth millennium, or he might feel differently*), their love of inventing things, and their strong desire to burn anyone who disagrees with them alive.

 

 

 

The idea was to create a sort of flame effect on the faceplate of this sergeant model, but of course he's ended up looking like some hellish duck. In the grim darkness of the far future, there are no pensioners with bread crumbs, you have to get them yourself. You will note the Space Marine appears to have a hypertrophic left arm, which is allegedly a power fist, a sort of weapon that uses an energy field to explode heads like pumpkins wired with gelignite (presumably there are lots of safety-related infographics in the user manual about not idly scratching one's self), but I think we all know that a single massively overdeveloped arm is a condition that many teenaged Warhammer enthusiasts will be familiar with.

 

* Win easily bullies Grant, who is weak and squirrely, though Grant can effortlessly drive Winston to a killing rage, which he seems to enjoy doing despite thereupon being the full-blast recipient of same. Winston tries to mess with Madeleine, but she's far too mighty for him; she's large enough and he's small enough that they can wear each other's clothes with minimal difficulty, and when I play Princesses with her, I always tell her she is a strong and fast princess. The last time he was mean to her, it ended with him curled into a ball and sobbing with her standing over him, saying very calmly, "You scared me, Win. If you do it again, I will put you in the trash. The trash, Win." Madeleine learned quickly that a fierce kick to the fork can end arguments instantly, as I have learned to my own deep pain.

[Procopius]

And never doubt that all of you have some positive influence on the world; I put two of the IBG Spitfire I/II double boxes on backorder at Big Yellow. Boy am I excited to test-drive our very effective and not at all brain-dead tariff regime.

[Cookenbacher]

Great hearing from you Edward - I too have some IBG Spitfires on backorder from H, and the sooner they reach these shores the better.

Madeleine sounds awesome.

[Hook]

On 8/1/2025 at 11:11 PM, Procopius said:

so feel quite sheepish.

No need!, you're among mates here. 

 

What the other guys said already - very good to hear from you again, even though I would wish you better circumstances. At least that Warhammer droid thingy looks the dogs danglies! 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Hook]

2 hours ago, Procopius said:

power fist, a sort of weapon that uses an energy field to explode heads like pumpkins wired with gelignite

I would have believed it as the name of a 80s hair metal band. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Terry1954]

Really great to hear from you Edward, and glad to see that you are still (just about) getting some modelling time on the Warhammer stuff.

 

Even an old grandad like me has had a go at that stuff ........

 

 

I got this far and primed it in black. It needs more appendages of course, but those will wait till some of my grandsons visit in a couple of weeks. I've not gone completely mad though, as you can just see an upturned P-51 in the box it is stood on. That's my Old Buckenham Museum build waiting for some nose, tail and wingtip colour!

I'm on a deadline for that one, to be delivered the end of next month. There is a WIP on here.

 

Oh and by the way .........

 

4 hours ago, Procopius said:

Boy am I excited to test-drive our very effective and not at all brain-dead tariff regime.

 

Curious to learn how that works out!

 

Meanwhile, stay safe, and as others have said, don't be a stranger, we all miss you!

 

T.