Nice tabs...

On another note, the Nimrod has had the undersides painted and masked up ready for the Hemp coat.

Painting again tomorrow.
Cheers
Warren

The Buff has been applied..



Now comes the fun part, taking off all that masking tape and applying hundreds of stencils! Joy..

Is all part of building modern aircraft I suppose.

Until the morrow,
Cheers
Warren

Hi Warren,

looks nice! And awfully big!

Greetings from Shanghai

Hey Tom!

What's the air pollution like there today? Hope it is OK..

That Hornet of yours is gorgeous.

Yes, the Nimrod is big, about the same dimensions as a 1/72 Herc...

It got its undercarriage today.



I thought Airfix had forgotten the nosewheel door placement but after having another look at some photos it seems the nosewheel doors just disappear when the undercarriage is down.. Suits me!!

Cheers
Warren

Looking great Warren!

Right, moving on with the Sea Vixen - the airbrake bay is in:



This next part really demonstrates the value of test fitting EVERY PART EVERY TIME!!!
Having put together and painted the intake liner tubes, I test fitted the Y shaped part, only to discover that if one side fits, the other side is out by 3-4 mm:


The only solution is to separate the tubes, glue the ends into the intake ducts, and use the fan faceplate to line up the other end while they set:



Also today, I have installed the undercarriage bays, and after test fitting the fuselage halves together, realised I need to thin the tops of the bays, or the wings won't join properly. Also, in the next pic, you can see I have begun to thin the trailing edges of the wings. I can tell I'm going to enjoy putting the fuselage together!



To quote someone who commented on a build log of this kit that I am following, "This kit really sorts the model makers from those who merely assemble kits". That just about sums this kit up, shake and bake it certainly ain't!

Thanks Warren!

Now its blue sky and breathable , but the weeks before it felt like in a smokers compartment outside. Should be better in your part of the world. But now its cold, nearly freezing at night. And only aircon for heating..

I really like the color combination of your Nimrod. Even with the "belly" she looks good. The Comet is in my eyes one of the most beautiful Jetliners at all.

The Hornet is now standing opposite my Me-410 Hornisse (Hornet in german). Quite an interesting contrast, but also some similarities.

Greetings from Shanghai

Hi Lee

Do you have pics in your thread? Cannot see anything.
Or is it only blocked by the great firewall in my part of the world?

Greetings from Shanghai

Yes Tom, there are pics in my thread, not sure why you can't see them.

The Great Firewall again
Protecting me from pornography, politics and your Vixen, lol.

Photbucket is working here, but some other programs not.
Not your fault Lee

Greetings from behind the Firewall

@ Lee, thanks mate.

@ Tom, bloody firewall. If you want to email me the pictures I may be able to upload them for you somehow. Glad to hear the atmosphere is not too toxic at the moment. Hoep you don't get an inversion layer.. could be deadly..

Well, the boring, tedious decaling started today. Modern aircraft just have so many stencils. In 1/32 they are OK, but in 1/72 all you see for most stencils is a line of colour.. The Airfix decals, while nice and glossy and go on fine, the printing is not the best and you can see where the decals have not had a high enough resolution during printing.. ie you can see straight through the decals and see individual pixels. Oh well, at least they gave you white backgrounds for those pale roundels.

I would love to build another one of these in a different scheme, but they take up a bit of room!

Oh and there has been a change of plan.. seeing I am building the one that was on display at the 1988 Bicentenial Airshow, where I was 'guarding' the RAAFs brand new shiny F/A-18s, there will be no external stores on the plane. On another note I was asked about 10000 times if the plane I was guarding was an F-18 and it got a bit tedious in the end(there's that word again} so I made a little sign I blu-taced to the side of the jet, 'Yes, this is an F/A-18'..

Thanks Warren,

not necessary, photobucket works. Just cannot see Lee's pics at all.
Not much we can do here with the airquality, but stil much better than in the north. We have wind here

Decals are my curse.
Beautiful paintjob and then lose or break the things. On the Hornet 1 roundel broke int 4 pieces and the lightning bolts had to be replaced totally. I tend to paint roundels and simple crosses lately.
Did you try dry transfers?

Greetings from Shanghai

I use Imageshack

Just for you Tom, now on Photobucket!






In theory, everyone should be able to see them now!

Lee, I can see them all the time.. Maybe Tom is being blocked by his government...

Well, the Nimrod is finito.. for the moment..

Decals are still drying. Humid day here today..

You see that red kangaroo on the fuselage, that is what we call down here a zap. Basically someone with a spray can and a stencil sneaks out to the aircraft avoiding guards etc and spray paints the kangaroo on the aircraft. This used to happen to just about any visiting aircraft at one stage. Not sure about now. Good on Airfix for including it. Proves it was at the Bicentennial Airshow back in 1988. '34' was the static display bird, while '41' did a few circuits etc during the show if I remember correctly.


Nice shiny decals will be dull coated tomorrow to become nice dull decals.
Cheers for now
Warren

That's lovely! The Nimrod always looked graceful, even though it was on the verge of being ugly. It's a pity the UK Tories retired them.

@ Warren

Great Nimrod! How do you build so fast and still good?
I am much slower and feel I need much more putty and my surfaces are never so good.
Will you do some weathering?

@Lee Thank you so much, that was really not necessary.
Some things are simply not working here. (And its not MY government )
The Vixen looks not really like an easy weekend built. But the problem solving is the fun part, isnt, it?

Greetings from sunny Shanghai

Tom, don't forget that this one was at an Airshow so it was at its best cleanliness wise. Richmond has a huge sprinkler system we used to call the Birdbath and the Nimrod went through it a few times before they scrubbed it up ready for the show.

Warren. Super work on the Nimrod. I have one in my stash. It is a big beast, I hope you have the space to display it!

I've made a start on my build of the Ye Olde Airfix DH.4.
First thing to do was to add some much needed detail to the pilot and gunners cockpits with plastic strip. I used some 3d CGI images I found online to help. I have a lovely little cast metal wicker seat left over from a previous build, that fits neatly into the cockpit with no trouble.


Stephen

Progress, got it pulled together, masked and primed. Even laid down the white for the 'invasion stripe'

You've come to the really fun stage,Mark. Time to apply the color and give it an identity.

Well I appear to be making progress with the Tasman models Dh89 rapide. The right fuselage half was badly warped and gluing in the window strip helped very little with straightening it out. To solve the problem though was relatively easy as the left had side didn't suffer any of the warping the right hand did. To remedy the problem I glued the interior to the left hand side and then after painting the interior glued both halves together from the tail to the rear of the passenger cabin. This was held together with a rubber band I then proceeded to glue the rest of the fuselage together. This was held in place at the front of the passenger compartment and behind the cockpit with a rubber band. This was not only to help with the warping but also because the two halves were being stubborn about joining flush with one another. A little tamiya putty was used and the whole thing came together nicely. The trailing edges are knife thin and well in scale with the bottom wing being a single piece. There are rigging instructions which are a little ambiguous to me but the detail photo's that come with the kit helped with sorting things out. A very nice touch thanks tasman! The donor Heller kit is showing it's age however, but I find the kit to still more than acceptable. Here are some progress pics for what I've done so far.

Hi Chris,

Looks beautiful but difficult to build.

Greetings from Shanghai

Hi all

Am in with Trumpeter's Vampire....although I know it is only a 5 I will be building it straight from the box with the decals.

Uh...hi Chris, Dragon is looking good, and guess who is building the same kit, ok, Airfix is the box maker, but the same kit.

As you can see the kit is somewhat second hand and looks as though it has had a hard life.

One of the consequences of second hand is missing parts, one seat is missing so left out the one behind the cockpit door. As I intend to build the Royal Flight aircraft this gives extra space for the VIPs. The kit so far fits reasonably well but like Chris's the right fuselage is warped, although not as badly as his. I coated the windows with Maskol before fitting them, easier than masking with tape.

I'm obviously working the other way up from Chris as I fitted the top wing first, gaps are not huge, but a bit of stretched sprue cures them.

The cockpit canopy also needed filling, again I used stretched sprue, masking this is going to be a pain. The bottom wing and bottom of the top wing will have to be fitted before painting but the struts left off and rigging will have to be taped out of the way.

Hi Andrew nice to see another DH89! This would be when Heller and Airfix were part of the same company and sharing moulds I guess? I wonder if either is still producing them? I seem to remember John Stone from Tasman Models telling me he only had limited supply of Heller kits left. I've drilled holes all the way through the wing for the rigging so I'm hoping I can rig it before I paint it in overall silver dope. I'll guess we'll see if the idea works soon enough. Was your bottom wing warped too? Mine was but gluing in the struts helped align the upper and lower pretty much, although I did judiciously tweak the bottom one a little before gluing everything together.

@Warren: Damn Warren before I forget, again, the Nimrod looks absolutely fantastic nice job putting it together! Interesting looking clamps are they produced specifically for modelling? And if so who produces them and where can I get a set?