Narses2's Blog - or what I'm slowly making progress on

[NARSES2]

509 is fitted.

here's the link to the build http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,43702.new.html#new

And here's a pic of her

[zenrat]

Oh yeah! nice paint.

News reports today that the Cricket board may have moved their position slightly.

[NARSES2]

Oh yeah! nice paint.

News reports today that the Cricket board may have moved their position slightly.

The paintwork is as pictured in one of the options RS offer on the box, indeed on the front of it.

I'll dig around a bit about the cricket, cheers for the update 

[zenrat]

Oh yeah! nice paint.

News reports today that the Cricket board may have moved their position slightly.

Can't believe I missed the obvious "from the dining room to the bar" pun.  D'oh! 

[NARSES2]

 

Anyway the one remaining kit on the bench the D.520 has had her transfers added and perhaps more importantly been matted and had her "final things to do" sheet made out. So she is very nearly there - touching all the wood possible. The option I've chosen seems to have all its fuselage markings, and there's a lot of them, to the rear of the canopy. Don't think there's room for anything else ! If/when I make another (after the PR version) I'll balance them up a tad. 

Meanwhile I've sorted out the 3 kits for my twin engined build. I always like to build in threes as it means there's something to do whilst other parts are setting/drying etc.

So the three kits are : An Airfix new tool Beaufighter TF X. This build has been planned for a very long time. ; Sword Ki-102a Kou : and rescued from the shelf of doom a resin kit which has been languishing up there for ages (you should have seen the layer of dust) because I had no idea how to finish her. I now have some idea so she has been pulled down. All the major parts are assembled, but there is a little cleaning up to be done. I test fitted the wings and they are a remarkable fit, hats off to Anigrand 

[zenrat]

And the third?

[NARSES2]

And the third?

Lets just say it's Anigrand resin and a US twin boom fighter project 

Meanwhile was looking at the Azure part of the stash today, being Bastille Day I thought it was appropriate and have earmarked a couple of kits for my "France fights on" theme. Looking at the camouflage I thought I'd dig a little deeper into the colours used (the D.520 isn't in standard French colours) and was surprised to learn that there wasn't that much standardisation. According to my copies of French Aircraft from 1939 to 1942 by Dominique Breffort and Andre Jouineau they were delivered from the manufacturers mainly in Khaki and Light Grey Blue. These colours were then mixed with various others to produce the other two colours which were then applied at the base with no particular scheme in mind. So the fact that I have French paints from three different companies all of whom have a different interpretation for most of the "official" colours is no problem at all 

Also means I can use this "mix it yourself" attitude to have several experimental schemes in the different theatres of War 

If anyone has more information on this then I'd be very interested.

[NARSES2]

Progress 

Had a good look at the Anigrand kit and did some sanding of some previous puttying. Fit was obviously fairly good. One of the reasons she got put on the shelf of doom was that I had no idea what to do with her, however I now have an idea and more importantly the markings. However after sorting the smaller parts into separate bags I found I'm missing one of the superchargers  Now given that I have 3 spinners it was probably never in the kit to start with so is perhaps another reason why she was shelved ? Anyway looking through the spares box marked "engines, cowlings, props etc" I discovered a few bits and bobs that I can probably rig up to look like some kind of supercharger, providing it's in the dark and during a power cut. At least they will be symmetrical and I'll give it a go.

Meanwhile I had a good start with the Sword "Randy". Got a fair few sub-assemblies done and the paint can be started tomorrow. Initial thoughts ? Looks good. Fit so far has been excellent. The plastic appears to be a tad harder than previous Sword kits I've built, thus the detail is a little finer. The sprue attachment points are definitely finer and far easier to clean up then of previous kits of theirs I've built. Would of been useful to have had resin wheels as the main ones are in two halves and will need a little putty. But all told looking good. The real proof of the pudding will come with major assembly, so watch this space.

An interesting point that came out whilst I read the instructions (sorry if that offends some  ) was that the "b" version designed for ground attack was to be armed with guided missiles. According to Putnam's 102 of these missiles were built but not used. Never knew about this and I may try and scratch a couple.

So Japanese air to ground and air to air missiles, one for the aftermarket boys perhaps ?

[NARSES2]

Here's the D.520

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,44063.0.html

[PR19_Kit]

Very pretty. 

I do like that Armee de l'Air 4 colour scheme, but I've only ever done one aircraft in it. 

[NARSES2]

I do like that Armee de l'Air 4 colour scheme, but I've only ever done one aircraft in it. 

I can see me doing a few in the near future both real world and wiffed, with a few in variations of the 4 colour scheme.

Meanwhile the Randy has started to have it's innards painted. Bit slower than normal as I've dug the Colourcoats out again for a nice shade of "Nakajima Interior Green".

The Anigrand kit can now have some painting done to it's fuselage module, but both nacelles/booms need a little more work. I also found another reason why she'd been shelved. A stupid cock-up on my part  She will be finished this time however as no model has ever been returned to the shelf of doom, the bin yes, but not the shelf 

[TheChronicOne]

Here's the D.520

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,44063.0.html

Oh man..it's gorgeous!!!  I'm with Kit... I love the colors; everything from the roundels on down. Must be the blues...   I TOTALLY want to build something French now...   WWII era of course. 

[NARSES2]

Oh man..it's gorgeous!!!  I'm with Kit... I love the colors; everything from the roundels on down. Must be the blues...   I TOTALLY want to build something French now...   WWII era of course.

Bear in mind I've tweaked the official French colours. The dark earth area should be green/Khaki  and the undersides should be a grey shade. But hey anything goes 

[PR19_Kit]

Tweaking is good, and almost essential on here. 

[NARSES2]

Bit of a hiatus Tues/Weds. No idea what I did during my sleep but I woke up Tuesday morning and somehow had done both my back and hips in  Don't tend to suffer from a bad back (touching wood) but it was quite bad and the hips were worse. Absolutely screwed me up for a couple of days 

Got up yesterday and it was fine (ish) so back to work 

The Randy is now a complete airframe and is looking quite good.There will be some psr needed on the wing centre section/fuselage join but not that much. Overall I'm impressed with the fit of this kit. The interior fitted very well indeed and the rest has been good. Far better than their earlier tooling's ; they've moved up a notch 

The Anigrand kit is coming along very, very slowly, but she will get there.

I've also started to assemble some sub-assemblies for the Beaufighter. Nothing much to report as it goes together really well, as you would expect with new tool Airfix  I'd never noticed how the rockets were hung until I drilled the hole for them. Almost a modern style pylon affair rather than the clumsy WWII Brit style racks. Could see this being used on some other types.