What's on the workbench!

[McColm]

Saturday 1st December 2018

I received a package from Flightpath the resin parts fit the Airfix Shackleton MR2, apart from the nose.
I'm trying to cut back on buying new kits. The parts could go on the Revell DC-4 , a North Star MPA.
I wonder if there was ever a turbofan powered Beriev Be-12 Mail?
The wings from the Airfix Avro Vulcan do fit the vacform HP Victor K2.
I'll see if the remaining vacform wings fit the Airfix BAe Nimrod .

[McColm]

Sunday 2nd December 2018

Two builds for 2019.
Using the 1/72 Italeri HC-130J as a base for the EC-130V AEW.
The SeaMaster airliner, change the engines to turboprops.

[McColm]

Tuesday 4th December 2018

The various tinkering of builds continues with:

1/200 Revell Boeing SST. I'm calling the six engines and two tail fins the 300 series and the other one the European SST-200.
The European SST-200 has the single vertical tail fin and engines from the 1/144 Concorde. I might fill in the gap of the swing wings making it a delta. Just needs tidying up.

The main components of the 1/100 Playfix HS Trident are glued together. There's a slight gap at the top of the fuselage, everything else has no gaps.

My third 1/72 Revell Blohm & Voss Bv222A flying boat.
I've gone back to fitting a pair of Airfix Avro Vulcan wings but I haven't included the engines with this one. Upstairs is the suite from the Airfix Avro Shackleton MR2, which fits the space behind the cockpit, the Flight Engineer's station will be repositioned. Part 64 will be deleted and aclear plastic scratch build from a plastic bottle inserted in the gap.The two large cargo doors will need to be modified to fit due to the new wing. I might scratch build some more work stations on the lower deck and have the largest door in the open position.
You can't see a great deal of detailing through the fuselage windows.
This will become a maritime patrol flying boat.

The Avro Shackleton MR2 B or AP-45 Maverick.
This now has a Mk5 tail fin, came off a Monogram Grumman Albatross but looks the part as though they were made for each other. Lumps and bumps are to follow.

The Martin Mariana needs some TLC and filler to restore it.

I got a large pop-up guide to Hogwarts by Matthew Reinhart  illustrated by Kevin M.Wilson.
It's not your average pop-up book, it's huge 33 x 37 inches when fully laid out

[McColm]

Thursday 6th December 2018

Up on till now the Revell Blohm & Voss BV222A Wiking hasn't caused me too many problems. The fitting of parts has been very straight forward until I came to glue the engine cowlings. These have developed gaps at the top. I haven't used the engines in the kit but substituted them for 6 Rolls-Royce Griffons from the Revell Shackleton AEW.2.
These are going on the Air Car Ferry, whilst I have found a pair of Airfix Avro Vulcan wings and glued them on the other kit. Not quite the Mighty Thor but a friend of Gordon's from the Royal Marines Club (reference Around the Horne , BBC radio show).
I'll have a rummage and find a suitable pair of auxiliary jets.

Just stopping for lunch.

After lunch I started to paint the interior of both Wiking and add Green Stuff pity to fill in the small gaps.

[McColm]

Saturday 8th December 2018

I hope no one looks too closely at the decals of my maritime sea Wiking interior some of those decals are in the wrong places on the work stations.
As to the air car ferry version, the upper deck now has seating taken from the Mach2 Sud Caravelle . One row of double seats and one row of single seats. Just need to paint the lower deck floor before gluing the two fuselage halves together.

The HS Trident now has five jet engines.

The pop-up book of Hogwarts is now divided into 5 separate sections. Each section is been glued on to a cardboard base board so it stands upright.
The Forbidden Forest , The Quidditch Pitch and Hogsmead Village didn't need any work done to them, the greenhouses and the main castle need a bit of work done and some touching up where the cardboard base is showing through.
It's my excuse to buy a 00 gauge train set next year.

[Tophe]

The HS Trident now has five jet engines.

Good improvement!

[McColm]

Friday 14th December 2018

At £51 the Anigrand 1/72 Martin SeaMaster has to be the bargain of the year bought off eBay.
Unlike previous kits, this one actually fits together rather well especially in the fuselage halves and rear section. I haven't tried the wings or T-tail parts.
Again with my first kit these parts tended to fit the left hand side and have issues on the other side.
I have managed to find the engines from the Revell 1/72 Airbus A400M Grizzly/Atlas kit,, whether or not I can cut the propellers out without damaging them is a different matter.
As a backup I do have a pair of large turbofan engines taken from the 1/144 Airbus 380.

My 1/72 Convair B-36 Peacemaker is too big, but most of the parts will be used on my other builds.
The Northrop flying wing will be kitbashed with the engines from the Anigrand SeaMaster, tail fins from my spares box. Fake windows in the upper wings and front air intakes, tail cone added from the Revell HP Victor K2, although the Freightdog improvement set might be a better option. There's some interest on Facebook about this.

The 1/72 Heritage Wings Avro York comes in thick plastic moulding with metal fittings, the clear cockpit canopy is a bit on the large side, so I will use the one provided by CMR. I have found a pair of Revell Avro Shackleton AEW. 2 wings and tail fins. I will rename this build the Avro Stork.

The Stratton could be built using my 1/72 BAC Concorde kit, I just need to find a Boeing 747 small enough to graft to the front. Although I have seen a 'repairs/scrap' 747 on eBay.

[TheChronicOne]

Good thing about the 747 is that I've seen it in about a bizillion different scales so finding one of adequate size is possible....       however probable, though, is another issue!

I'm with Tophe on the Trident.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm with Tophe on the Trident.

So would most Trident pilots I expect, it wasn't nicknamed the 'Ground Gripper' for nothing......

[NARSES2]

At £51 the Anigrand 1/72 Martin SeaMaster has to be the bargain of the year bought off eBay.
Unlike previous kits, this one actually fits together rather well especially in the fuselage halves and rear section. I haven't tried the wings or T-tail parts.
Again with my first kit these parts tended to fit the left hand side and have issues on the other side.

I know what you mean about Anigrand, they can be a tad "heavy". However one advantage they do have is that the thickness of the resin means you are in very little danger of going through it when doing the necessary PSR  . I quite like their kits to be honest.

[McColm]

Thanks for your comments guys.
Just found three large helicopter rotor blades and I'm going to fit them on my Heliplane.
I hope this will be the start of the 2019 finished builds.
2019 is the start of the many Cold War anniversaries, there's a group build in  this topic but I hope Airfix pulls out a few new releases or retooled kits.
I'd love to see a retooled 1/72 Avro Vulcan B2, and the HS/BAe Nimrod could do with a revamp as well.
Mastercasters seem to be offering landing gear, nose wheel doors and upgrade sets for the Mach2 Britannia. I hope that they continue this across the whole range as the York and Argosy could do with these improvements.
Another kit that I would love to see is a 1/72 Avro Lincoln.
On the whiffing side I think I have found a picture of the Boeing E-7 Wedge tail which is almost 1/72 scale, this would look great on one of my Airfix BAe Nimrod kits.
I was on the eBay site the other day and came across a few travel agent aircraft display models, some are damaged whilst the others can be whiffed.
I wish all the Whifflers a happy and peaceful Christmas, a happy new year.

[NARSES2]

I wish all the Whifflers a happy and peaceful Christmas, a happy new year.

And you. All the best 

[McColm]

Tuesday 18th December 2018

I might have stumbled on to something by adding the Matchbox Hunter T.Mk7 cockpit section to the Heller Dassault Mirage IV A/Pbomber.
The two parts are almost a perfect fit.
My first thoughts was to look up the Fairey Delta FD2 for a comparison.
The rest of the day will be spent tinkering in between doing my laundry chores.
Why can't they make rotor blades for model helicopters out of metal???
Why do the heads of the arm break off so it's next to impossible to super glue them back in place?
I just need to experiment with resin casts first. Metal cleats would be lovely if they could be small enough to fit.
I could always start building 1/48 scale helicopters instead, I wonder if they sell the 1/48 helicopter rotor blades separate from the kit?
Meanwhile the Car Air Ferry based on the 1/72 Revell Blohm & Voss Bv222 V-2 or Prince Class flying boat as I now call it has had the two fuselage halves glued together. Same story gaps but in the lower fuselage section, I managed to seal the top without any gaps.
With the passenger seats painted blue and glued in place on the upper deck and the upper gun turret has been replaced with the vacform clear dome from the Airmodel kit, yes I still can't see anything but I know its there.
The upper deck cockpit section is glued in place,, I've decided to add some door stays to the clamshell doors so they can stay open at 90 degrees. I think I have a pair of car ramps from the Airfix Bristol Superfreighter kit that I could use.
Whilst that was drying the 1/72 Avro AP-45 Welsh Dragon has suffered some damage to it's guns, two have snapped off. These will be replaced and extra guns added. Well the tail section now has the multi-guns from the B-25 Mitchell nose.

[McColm]

Monday 24th December 2018

With the situation with the rotor blades for the 1/72 Lockheed Heliplane I too am going down the Boeing V-22 route, other parts will be used on the Fokker Rotodyne .

The Air Car Ferry flying boat is coming along, just needs detailing on the clamshell doors. For the landing gear I have found the remains of a car kit and will use the axle rods drilled through the lower fuselage with wheels added. Perhaps rear wheel steering similar to the Beriev Be-12 Mail.

The idea for the 1/72 Avro Stork (combination of the Avro York and Avro Shackleton wings, engines and landing gear). Parts are being assembled, vacform kit fuselage halves have been cut. This would make a great gunship, as I can poke the guns through the windows.
Whilst the other one becomes a maritime patrol aircraft.
As I discover more kits in the stash, new builds will emerge throughout the year.

[McColm]

Saturday 29th December 2018
It looks like I will be buying a few more 1/72 Avro Shackletons as I intend to build one of each mark. Plus a few of my own ideas.
I wish that Mach2 extends it's range to include the F-RSIN stock but in 1/72 scale.
It would be an interesting project to build the BAe-146 as a COD proposal. I have the Welsh Models 1/144 vacform kit in the stash.
I must get around to build my end-to-end 00gauge railway layout. Makes sense to me to have the station as part of Hogwarts Castle.
Also finish off all the started builds.