What's on the workbench!

[McColm]

Tuesday 24th January 2018

The Mighty Thor AEW.3 now has a pair of HS/BAe Nimrod wings. The engines will get FOD covers and grills on the top of the engines similar to the Mig-29 so it can taxi in water without causing any damage to the engines. A third set of main landing gear to prevent it being a tail sitter and floats under each wing. The rotodome looks a bit wonky, the onboard gyro will sort that out when in the air.
PSR for the next few weeks.
The  HP Sentinel AEW  1/144 scale build now has the rotodome from the Revell 1/144 Boeing E-3A AWACS Kit. It looks a bit on the small side when glued to the Boeing 747 series 100.
The 1/72 turbofan ex Mach2 Breguet Br1150 Atlantic renamed Atlanta for this build, has its landing gear with wheels glued on, ECM and ESM wingtip pods from the Airfix kit.

[McColm]

I think that I have surpassed myself this time. The 1/72 Majestic (Northrop X/YB-35 flying wing, amphibious flying boat) will now get a pair of B-52D engines mounted over the wing .
The contra-rotating propellers will be going on the Maverick Shackleton twin engined float plane as I need the Hamilton blades for the turboprop Connie.
As for the Mighty Thor AEW.3 I have reworked the AlleyCat improvement engine set for the Airfix HS/BAe Nimrod. It just might be the first amphibious flying boat with canards fitted.
Meanwhile Eric the Viking has had one or two windows collapsed which has lead to a few lumps and bumps fitted. It's the first armed jet AEW flying boat to enter British service.
The 1/144 HP Sentinel AEW.1 still looks a bit daft with the rotodome from the Boeing E-3A on top of a Boeing 747. Can't go back now, as it is close to the painting stage.

[McColm]

Saturday 27th January 2018

A package arrived for me at lunchtime. Inside two Heller 1/43 model car kits for restoration;
A blue Rover 3500 with missing door mirrors and a slight crack in the back window.
A red Range Rover.
They are too good to cut up, although I will have to check if the early cars had rear windscreen wipers fitted.
I'll be looking out for another Rover to convert into a four door sedan.

On a whim I bought a Lockheed C-5 snaptite plastic model kit. There's no manufacturers' stamp on any of the parts, the fuselage is about 9 inches long. The fit apart from the wings is very good. I was thinking of the Martin SeaMistress. Mounting the engines above the wings and cut the nose to the open position.

[McColm]

Monday 29th January 2018

I couldn't get to sleep this morning so I did a bit of work on the 1/72 Mach2 Breguet Br1150 Atlantic.
All the ill fitting parts have been covered over by a raid in the spares boxes.
The nose wheel leg is from FreightDog  BAC TSR-2 , engines are from a 1/48 Lockheed S-3A Viking, ESM wingtip pods are from the Airfix BAe Nimrod, nose cone is off a AC-119G/K and the radome is from the Revell Avro Shackleton AEW.
The sonobouy launch tubes are from the Hasegawa Lockheed P-3C Kit.
The Atlanta will become an MPA aircraft, whereas the Atlantis is the fuselage of the Revell Atlantic, wings are from the Hasegawa Lockheed P-3  Orion, so is the nose cone, interior cockpit and landing gear. As there's no glazed parts in this kit the canopy is also from the Orion.
At last I have built a four engined Atlantic

[McColm]

Saturday 3rd February 2018

I'm not too sure if I have created the world's first 4 door Rover SD1/3500 V8  using a Scalextric made in Britain model number:03B. It's got right-hand drive with  the number 12,Triplex, Esso and Motor Magazine decals. Ref number NFN762S.
It's road legal as it retains its indicators, no wing mirrors nor bumpers so it could be used for Rally-Cross  or Touring racing..
I just need to tidy up the back and add the rear glazed panel.
I might keep the decals and just touch up the alloys.
I've removed the electric motor as well.

[McColm]

Had to share this pic with you.....maybe seen this before, maybe not...reminded me of your projects.

6403025c5e812df844a6dc91b0f3e52f by Buddy Holly, on Flickr

David

I'd like to use the VEB /PlayFix 1/100 scale IL 62 as the donor kit for this build. The front and rear radomes will probably be shaped from plasticard and filler.
Whereas the Tu-134 could make a decent Sud Caravelle look-a-like if I can round off the tail fin and move the T-tail to a lower position. The windows are round but I have a decal sheet with triangle windows, so they can be filled in or cut to the right shape.
I found two 1/144 airliners built with the landing gear up. A Comet and the Sud Caravelle. The rotodome from the Revell1/144 E-3 Sentry seems a better fit on both than the Boeing 747.

[McColm]

Saturday 10th February 2018

I came up with the idea of converting the Revell 1/72 Catalina MkII into a turboprop flying boat with beaching gear using parts from the Canadair CL 415 for the GB Floatplane build, didn't intend on using the leftover parts on the Heller Lockheed Constellation Super-G.
The Canadair fits under the Connie after a bit of fettling, previous to this I changed the engines to turboprops from the Hasegawa Lockheed P-3 Orion and the cockpit has been replaced with the front section of a Gulfsteam.

[McColm]

Well that's it saturation point, 12 started builds all in various stages. They should keep me busy for a while.
I'll probably miss a the deadline for the current group build.
Now that I can hang a few from the ceiling this should ease up some space for the car conversions.

[TheChronicOne]

Should be enough to keep you busy awhile. . .   

[McColm]

Tuesday 20th February 2018

I haven't done any whiffery due to working nights, but I did buy a copy of Airfix March 2018 issue 88 magazine. I'm sure that I have the old Hasegawa 1/72 Kawanishi H8K2 Emily in the stash so the Eduard photo etch kits will come in handy, I'm also sure that I have a 1/72 Airfix Sea Harrier FA.2 as well.
Two kits that I will be looking out for are the Revell 1/25 '76 Ford Torino from the TV and film Starsky and Hutch and the Italeri 1/24 Ford Transit UK Police.
Lots of whiffing and non whiffing ideas.

[McColm]

A parcel arrived with a badly damaged red plastic 1/24 Frog Austin 1100 4 door saloon.
One wing mirror, no front wheels, no floor plan, rear bumper missing, no glazing,,two different styles of front indicators.
The front grill is a decal, rear and front licence plates  have FROG 042, rear bootlid chrome and engraved rear lights.
I did some research on line and apart from the front grill and rear boot chrome there's plenty of opportunities to restore the basic model.
I could chop the roof and make it into a Ute or leave the roof and go for a 3 door van.

[PR19_Kit]

There actually was a 3 door ADO16 van too, but it was never sold to the public.

In their rush to splatter the 1100 all over the UK the BMC designers rather lost the plot when thinking about a van version, so that when heavily loaded the Hydrolastic suspension ensured that the nose pointed waaaaaaaay up and the tailgate sank almost to ground level! The problem wasn't so evident with the Countryman estate version as they tended not to be loaded so heavily.

50 vans were built at the Cowley plant, all of which were painted in the rather dull orange colour so beloved of BMC, and they were all ended up  being used as service vehicles at Cowley and Longbridge. We had a couple of them in PSF's R&D Dept. but they were rarely used as vans, just as hack vehicles.

[McColm]

Thanks Kit, I also found an article about a five door hatchback conversion on the Super Delux model by an aftermarket company. They called this the Mystic, not too sure how many were converted as there was an estate version , CrayFord Cars did a convertible option for the two door.

[McColm]

Saturday 10th February 2018

I came up with the idea of converting the Revell 1/72 Catalina MkII into a turboprop flying boat with beaching gear using parts from the Canadair CL 415 for the GB Floatplane build, didn't intend on using the leftover parts on the Heller Lockheed Constellation Super-G.
The Canadair fits under the Connie after a bit of fettling, previous to this I changed the engines to turboprops from the Hasegawa Lockheed P-3 Orion and the cockpit has been replaced with the front section of a Gulfsteam.

Update
The CL-415 is a better fit with the Revell Avro Shackleton and the Connie gets the Dornier hull.

[McColm]

Got two weeks off next week to pull something out of the bag and get my reputation back on track before I get banned or worse

The started, but not yet finished;

The VC10 idea
HP Sentinel
Turbo Catalina
Float plane Avro Shackleton MR.1 aka Maverick twin engined
Mystic
Majestic
The Mighty Thor
Super Frelon AEW
Aer Lingus Rotodyne
Br.765 jet powered
Connie flying boat
Atlantic turbofan AEW
Atlantic 4 engines kitbash
Grumman 4 engined C-2 Greyhound
Shackleton flying boat
Rover 4 door sedan SD1