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

[NARSES2]

The March issue of MAM plonked through the letter box yesterday and there's a nice Whiff of the Tamiya 1/48 He 162 inside. It's "only" a paint job Whiff, but then so are 95% of mine  , but the builder say's how much he enjoyed getting away from his standard builds.

Looks so good I may well borrow the scheme for my second SH kit 

[NARSES2]

Progress on all current projects and details are in their threads, but as the Spitfire is real world I'll just say that I've got the interior painted, detailed and assembled and apart from a bit of "jiggling" necessary with the floor Airfix's construction method worked a treat. The assembled cockpit insert also fits nicely into the fuselage halves and they close neatly around it. So well done Airfix 

As a matter of interest on one of the recent Clear Prop releases I got the other week they use the same cockpit construction method as Airfix use on the Spitfire. Great minds ?

[NARSES2]

Stroke of luck the other day. I was going to order the DVD of "Theirs is the Glory" the other day, but then Talking Pictures had it on yesterday afternoon, so recorded it instead 

For those who don't know it's the British film about Arnhem made in 1945/46 using a lot of the guys who took part in the actual battle.

[NARSES2]

Well the Airfix Spitfire has entered the paint shop. I really can't believe just how well, and quickly, this kit has gone together. Apart from the "fiddling" with the floor mentioned above it almost put itself together  I'd assembled all the sub-assemblies whilst working on the interior and once I'd installed the cockpit it took about 90 minutes to put the rest of the kit together. Very well thought out assembly sequence and everything slotted together with no problem at all, a couple of pieces needed no glue they were that secure.

One can only hope the forthcoming Beaufort and Mosquito are up to this standard.

[The Wooksta!]

The same designer is doing the Mosquito, so I have every confidence in it.

Two stage bomber nose with l/e landing lights and the larger drop tanks. Got to be good.

[NARSES2]

Must admit the Mosquito will be one of the hi-lights of my modelling year 

[NARSES2]

With my current 3 builds in the paint shop and with the waiting time that tends to be involved (even though my reasoning behind 3 builds at a time is that one will always be at a stage where work needs doing ?) I decided to break out a fourth.

So after initially pulling a Unicraft kit out of  the stash and seriously considering it, I put it away again on the grounds that I'll be starting my GB build next week and don't want something as involved, and pulled a Revell 1/72 Flitzer out. I've some interesting markings for this in the stash and it looks a fairly simple and quick build. *

* Indeed the major sub-assemblies are already together and fit has so far been good.

[NARSES2]

Spitfire has first coat of Middle Stone on her uppers and Flitzer has had some detail painting done whilst parts are on the sprues. Nice detail on the Flitzer, especially the wheel hubs. Not much in the cockpit, but with such a small canopy and no option to open it, you won't really see what there is anyway.

[NARSES2]

Whilst waiting for paint to dry (enamels on the Lagg) I got a little bit more done on the Flitzer. The Revell instructions are horrible. They are on that awful cheap paper that Revell used to use and are cluttered to say the least. One or two of the illustrations don't look like the parts they are supposed to be illustrating either. Particularly true of the nosewheel bay insert. If it was like the illustration then it could well fit as intended, as it is it wont. Took a little bit of head scratching but soon got it in, although a younger/first time modeller might struggle a bit without guidance. Anyway it's in and the fuselage halves will come together ok with some serious clamping as I test fit them before the glue had set properly.

There's also no way you can get nose weight in to the space where indicated in the instructions. Again you might if the part looked like the illustration, but there's room behind the cockpit insert, although I've dug a base out just in case.

[NARSES2]

Progress

I've finished the major painting on the Lagg and it's now awaiting the Klear coat to dry (Colourcoats being matt) before getting it's minimal transfers.

The Fokker has had the first of its 3 colour upper scheme painted, although it's so light it doesn't really stand out in the photo below.

The Flitzer's fuselage is together and she's now undergoing some psr, not much, but the boom attachments will certainly require more I feel. While doing the psr work on the fuselage I got wondering what a tailless, delta Flitzer would look like ? I also began to wonder who does a decent 1/72 Vampire ?

The Spitfire has started getting its transfers and I've had a little bit of bother with them to be honest. Whilst the national markings went on fine, but took a long time to come off the backing paper the squadron ID markings came off very quickly and then the "leg" of the X broke on both sides. Nothing drastic and it was soon manoeuvred into place. Perhaps when I changed the water it was too hot ?

Anyway the paint shop as of yesterday. As said there has been a little more progress since.

[TheChronicOne]

That green and black is wicked!!!!

Good 1/72 Vampire? Perhaps the recent new-tool Airfix? I loved it! Built up like a dream. I liked it so much I bought a couple extras.

[kitbasher]

If you mean single-seaters Chris then the Heller/Airfix/Revell FB5 is of its time (raised panel lines) but good.  The FROG FB5 is typical FROG - simple but adequate.  Both should be cheap.
But I'd go for the Special Hobby kits, available in F1/F3/FB5 and export versions.
That said, Heller did a Mistral (Nene-engined, license-built version) that could  be built OOB and finished in non-French Vampire operator markings for a quick and easy whif.
Converting a 5 to a 9 is straightforward.

Revell Flitzer fuselage clamping?  Been there, done that (twice).

[The Wooksta!]

Decent Vampire? Special Hobby. Get the F1 boxing as it has everything in it to cover all the single seaters.

As for the Flitzer, I'd replace the wheels as whilst the detail may be nice, spooked wheels are not very Luftwaffe and they'd be more likely to use 190 mainwheels for commonality.

[NARSES2]

Thanks gents 

I don't think the person who designed/tooled the nose wheel bay insert and the instructions ever met  Still the p.s.r. is done now and I need to fit the booms during my next down period at the bench.

[NARSES2]

As mentioned elsewhere I've been feeling fairly rough this week, so no progress whatsoever  , other than a coat of gloss on the LaGG ready for transfers, hopefully back to the bench this coming week.