There’s something deeply relaxing about rumbling your tank around the garden for 10 minutes with the sound effects turned up and the smoke on.

rumbling your junk around the garden for 10 minutes

😱

Oh crap. There are Challenger IIs in UK stock!

Must resist.

Adrian Warburton’s absolutely knackered Martin Maryland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Warburton

1/72 Eastern Express kit, which is a re-box of a 60 year old Frog.

Some home made decals (the “2” and the winged daemon on the tail) and every weathering technique that I could think of. The kit was a bit of a shocker, not helped by me losing the forward canopy glazing and having to make something out of spare parts.

Nice work Harry – very ‘beaten up’ and always nice to see a model with a bit of history to it.

On canopies I think it would be a great idea for manufacturers to include a spare in every kit. I’d certainly pay a little extra for it. The problem is that for aircraft models the glazing is such a massive part of success or failure. I have done some ‘home vac forming’ in the past using a canopy I had ruined as a mould. If you have no choice it’s worth a try!!

Nice. Good to see a different “ace” being remembered. The Adrian Warburton story deserves to be known far more widely. Proper boys own stuff

Yep. A loner who was nearly washed out. Got sent to Malta to keep him out of trouble. Hooked up with a Show Girl. Did some bat-shit crazy stuff. Stole a few aeroplanes. Crashed a few too. Became the most valuable pilot in the RAF for his photo recon work.

Warburton’s War and Fortress Malta are two excellent books if you want to know his story.

. A loner who was nearly washed out.

Hmmm, my recollection of reading about him was that although many fellow officers saw him as a loner, it disguised the fact that he was just friendly with the “wrong sort” i.e. the ground crew. And nearly washed out with good reason I think, he could barely manage to fly in his early career, just needs must and lots of practice in theatre meant he got away with it.

But yes, properly important contribution to the war who should be equally well known as Bader and Gibson IMO.

The three tone camouflage over pale blue on that Maryland looks distinctly un-RAF, was the real thing originally destined for France and diverted to the UK?

Very good effort on the beaten up paint scheme, you’ve done an excellent job on a jurassic kit with moulds that are clearly way past their best.

Also +1 for manufacturers putting an extra set of transparencies in the box.

Yeah. He fit in better with the ground crew than the officers. Also, he’d rather stay with his girlfriend than in his billet!

Was recommended for a VC, but it got knocked back because Bader hadn’t got one.

The aircraft was originally due to go to France, but the RAF took them when France fell. Also they weren’t properly primed, so the paint fell off.

Had a touch of The Plague over the last couple of weeks and decided that after watching 6 seasons of Game Of Thrones that I could do with a change, so I went to the stash.

Kit selection criteria was as follows:

1) It had to be a kit that wasn’t in the loft.

2) It had to be a kit that wasn’t camouflaged as I really couldn’t be bothered with faffing.

So, based on the above I present the Hasegawa Sea Harrier FRS1.

899 NAS, HMS Hermes 1982, EDSG all over.

No weathering, no additions (other than tape belts), no messing, no fuss.

Not a bad little kit and it got me away from the TV.

1/72 scale? Looks nice.

I did tha Tamiya 1/48 Sea Harrier a few years ago. Not their finest offering…

Thank. Ancient Hasegawa 1/72. Did it over 2 days.

Not a bad kit, the join along the top of the fuselage was a bit troublesome, but other than that it went together well. In fact I’ve ordered another one so that I can do the low visibility scheme that was also present in the Falklands, and I’ve just un-boxed an Italeri GR.3 to do an RAF one.

Interestingly (not really) the Italeri has the wings and upper fuselage as one piece.

I really liked the simplicity of the paint after spending ages doing camouflage, chipping, smoke and weathering on recent builds. I just added a dark wash over the landing gear to bring out some detail and that was it.

Got a bit of a Harrier thing going on. There’s a GR.9 in the loft somewhere too.

Nice work Harry. The plane that won the Falklands. Very interesting podcast on ‘We Have Ways…’ a few months back talking about the importance of the Harrier. I hadn’t realised the GR3’s that were sent down had very little modification and were basically totally unsuited to carrier operations. Also the RAF pilots were basically given 48 hours notice they were going!

Halfway through a Tamiya Storch which is a lovely little kit.

Also the RAF pilots were basically given 48 hours notice they were going!

My dad knows one the RAF pilots that was informed that he wasn’t going to fly Phantoms in the US on a conversation course with the USAF, but he was in fact going to learn Sea Harrier Ops on his way to the South Atlantic…Apparently it came as “a bit of a surprise”

Nice Sea Harrier, Harry. 🙂 I do think that an Extra Dark Sea Grey finish can give an aircraft a nice touch of class.

Apparently the Argentine pilots called it “The Black Death”, which can’t have been too good for their own morale.

Digging in the garage earlier I found a Clarke Wizz Air Mini Compressor if anyone wants it? It works, never used in anger – or joy as I’m so ham fisted with airbrushing.

There’s three new, unbranded airbrushes too.

I’m in Solihull but happy to post if someone covers the cost.

Oh Lordy – anyone fancy the ultimate Lanc? Nigh on £700 but look at the detail!!

https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=e8c8caa84d5b730e0d214e738&id=e83c930b48

If I had the time I would be tempted but I just could not do it justice. Plus I don’t have £700 for a kit!

Interesting – that looks like the WnW lanc that they never got round to launching before they went bust. If so I’d be tempted if I had the space to put it!

Edit: Britmodeller seems to think it is, which makes me wonder what other WnW kits will reappear. Maybe the unopened F2B on my desk is no longer a rare appreciating asset and I’ll have to build it.

Love the artwork too!

The HK models 1/48 lanc could be a more realistic proposition – it seems to have been better received than their 1/32 offering too…

Just got a job lot off Ebay:

Spad XII C-1
Sopwith F-1 Camel
Fokker Dr.1 Triplane
Fairey Swordfish x 2
Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC

All Revell, all 1:72. First three have possibly the worst moldings I have ever seen! Excess plastic all over the place. Is it wrong that I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to knock out something half decent? Oh, and being 1:72 WW1 bi-planes they are incredibly small and fiddly. Going try the rigging too.

Wish me luck.

Pryms knitting elastic for the rigging.

72nd scale biplanes are teeny tiny things…Need 48th at the very least and even then they’re still small. Makes you appreciate advances in aeronautics I suppose!

Jeez Coyote what kind of masochist are you?!

I suppose you don’t need to worry about canopies..

Well just over a week of being homebound imposed after Jr brought the ‘booster dose’ into the house meant we had a look at making the start to a model.

He likes the Corsair. Probably something to do with the ‘Planes’ movies. The Grandparents bought him a 1:48 Corsair for his birthday. Turns out they also bought him a 1:72 but decided it was too small so then they got him the 1:48. So we took the 1:72 as our practice run. Although in retrospect it’s small and fiddly and maybe we’d have been OK with the 1:48. Anywaaaaaaaay…. Painted a few parts on the sprules. He did most of the painting. Some transfers glue and assembly starts tomorrow…

Finished the Spad, definitely a labour of love! Actually quite chuffed with the outcome. Starting on the Sopwith Camel next. Will try and get some pics on here.

Started the assembly today. The level of detail (and frustration with transfers – seat belts on the chair ffs) is amazing. Got there in the end. Jr doing the gluing and painting. Some of it could do with touching up – Jr’s opinion is it makes the model look used / worn. It’s his model who am I to argue 👍

Sorry for spamming this thread with my progress. Two critical moments that I have been dreading…

Engine assembly and ensuring the prop shaft still rotates after gluing… Done 👍
Painting the frame on the canopy. Lots of umming and erring my 10yr old decided he was up for the task. He didn’t do a bad job doubt I’d have done better myself…

Ha, you’re not spamming. Always good to see work in progress.

If you want to clean up excess paint on a cockpit canopy, true breaking a bit off the clear sprue & sharpen that up , then scrape off the excess once it has dried.
Or use a cocktail stick.

Not spamming at all! Keep it coming.

Stick the canopy on with PVA rather that model glue. It doesn’t “fog” and you won’t get a dreaded thumb print.

I started a Harrier GR3 yesterday. Will post a picture when it starts to look like something.

If you want to clean up excess paint on a cockpit canopy, true breaking a bit off the clear sprue & sharpen that up , then scrape off the excess once it has dried.
Or use a cocktail stick.

Stick the canopy on with PVA rather that model glue. It doesn’t “fog” and you won’t get a dreaded thumb print.

Great tips both – thank you. Yup the canopy gluing was my final dread. The good old gluey fogging of the glass 🤣

It’s a wrap for today… My goodness that front undercarriage was fiddly 😡

A little bit of excess glue 😳 Some fine sandpaper to smooth off?

Looks great! very fine sandpaper to get rid of the glue, but make sure it’s gone off though, other wise it’ll just be a gummy mess. very very lightly sand away the excess

Have a look at this before you start painting

and this before you apply the decals.

Nice reminder. I watched those ages ago but it was good to remind myself. Thank you.

Sorry to hijack – but this is worth it:

Britain’s biggest model railway.
The train will shortly be arriving in 1983: a boyhood rebuilt in Britain’s biggest model railway

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/24/the-train-will-shortly-be-arriving-in-1983-a-boyhood-rebuilt-in-britains-biggest-model-railway

And more by the builder:
https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/heaton-lodge-junction

A wee video:
The bit at 18mins where describes how he shows & moves the railway is really quite bonkers.

I’m struggling with motivation at the moment.
In various states of incompleteness, I have:

Revell 1/144 Type VIIc U-boat. Mostly painted, waiting to finish the railings & deck guns

MiniArt 1/35 Australian M3 Lee ( with interior) – painted & decals applied, needs a coat of Matt varnish, then tracks fitting & the fiddly little bits to add.

HobbyBoss 1/48 Me262A1b – mostly assembled, canopy masked off. Need to mask off the undercarriage bays & paint it

Meng 1/35 Husky TSV (with interior) – this is the only thing I’m actively working on. And some squaddies to go with it, by Gecko Models

Tamiya 1/35 M48A3 Patton – part built, painted. Needs a coat of gloss, then decals etc

My office has been commandeered by MrsDrummer for the duration so I’m struggling for somewhere to do some airbrushing.

Maybe a Tamiya motorcycle will restore my mojo, these can almost be brush painted

I’ve got an 72nd Airfix Hawk 200 in Canadian training colors to finish. Undercarriage, bits and bobs, decals and weathering, maybe a couple of evenings work, but it’s not inspired me yet, and I know the canopy needs some work to fit properly.

Whole things has reminded me that I find jets a bit dull somehow