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

[kitbasher]

May sound lame but I'd only ever consider a NOVO Barracuda for whiffery.  But then again I always buy the bottom end or second hand kits for whiffing - too scared to chop up a pricey kit!

[NARSES2]

My Barracuda will be real world Dave. BPF 812 Sqd, but I know what you mean. As I'm really only a re-paint man it's not so bad but given your'e a major surgery man I fully understand your point of view

I'm gradually building a collection of aircraft actually used by the BPF and those that might have been used circa 1946/1947.

[NARSES2]

Work continues on the Barracuda and Battle. Barracuda has had it's canopy fitted and it's not a bad fit at all. I've also fitted the front portion of the Battle's canopy and that was fun, although in all fairness I may have had something to do with that. Firstly I dropped the windscreen into the forward fuselage and that took a fair bit of ferreting to retrieve it. Then I must have held it between finger and thumb for at least 5 mins in an attempt to get the Clearfix to hold the main part of the forward canopy but would it heck, at least not in the right position  . In the end I used a spot of superglue (thank heaven's for pre dips in Future/Klear) and it held. Will need some cleaning up then I need to re-prime a few areas on both builds.

Hoping to start the painting on these early next week.

Anyway whilst holding the blessed thing a thought occurred to me, which I've jotted down here http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,26920.new.html#new

[NARSES2]

Battle with the Battle's seams continues  The under fuselage one is an absolute *&^*^&  I swear blind that during the night some little gremlin comes out and digs the filler out that I put in the afternoon before ! I think (prey) I may have sorted it this time. Even I couldn't ignore this one 

Meanwhile I prepped my latest resin build. One of the nice things about building a prototype in production markings is that you can get away with changes to the designers design  . Given my luck with individual propeller blades there is no way I'm going to try and put 6 individual resin blades into a resin spinner. She will get a Shackleton's white metal prop (at least I think it's a Shackleton) which is only slightly smaller in dimension. I'll just say that the production model differed from the prototype.

[PR19_Kit]

May sound lame but I'd only ever consider a NOVO Barracuda for whiffery.  But then again I always buy the bottom end or second hand kits for whiffing - too scared to chop up a pricey kit!

is NOVO a abbreviation for something or a brand?

It probably means something in Russian as that's where they were based..

NOVO bought many of the old FROG moulds after FROG closed down and re-produced some of the kits later on. But you got LOTS of plastic for your money as there was about 120% more flash than there was model in the box! 

[NARSES2]

Some progress.

Undersides of Barracuda have been painted.

The Battle has been sprayed silver out of a Halfords can-------and boy does it show the defects in my sanding technique, or lack of it looking at this  Still can I live with it ? Yup if I push it much farther there won't be much left to the plastic or my sanity. May not be the right attitude but I couldn't give a fig as at the moment I've enjoyed the project any more psr and I wont, which means she would never get finished.

In my view modelling is a very personal thing. I admire greatly what others can do but I've learnt to live with my limitations. Anyway after that philosophy it means I can continue with the Battle at the weekend. Hopefully a different shade of "silver" on the fabric surfaces (white + silver) and a different shade on the cowl. Although the Battle was all metal (apart from the control surfaces) I'm doing her as at the 1940 Hendon Air Show and the Staff Sgt has had some poor "erk" polishing the cowling as in the way that Harts etc had been done. Just for old times sake 

[PR19_Kit]

I'm looking forward to an all silver Battle Chris. 

[NARSES2]

The Battle is now ready for her transfers and then after that 3 shades of varnish. Satin for the majority of the airframe, matt for the fabric surfaces and gloss for the cowl. Hopefully that will highlight the different surface finishes. I don't want her to be quite as noticeable a difference as that which you got on Hinds and all the other types with fabric fuselages and metal cowls but I want a slight difference in sheen between the metal fuselage and polished cowl.

Barracuda has been masked up for it's top coat. Do the slate grey tomorrow which is one of my least favourite colours to apply, must remember to thouroughly shake/stir the pot.

On a different track, sad as I am I keep all my old kit instruction kits. Now that came in quite handy this morning for one reason but whilst digging the box out I thought "put them in kit company order". I used to get these mad filing urges at work sometimes, the girls hated them  Anyway on doing so I was  quite surprised at the number of kits I've built by the various manufacturers. Not so much how many of some but how few of others. I've built more Huma kits then Italeri for instance. And one of those Italeri I binned half way through, one of the only models to ever to suffer that fate. An F5 if you ask.,

[NARSES2]

Battle has her transfers and Barracuda has her camouflage painted. The slate grey behaved today. Obviously counting to 300 while I shook the pot worked 

[NARSES2]

Barracuda now has her transfers - British PF, real world. It was a real booger to handle whilst getting them on. It really doesn't have a decent handhold anywhere other then the nose because of all the sticking out bits.

Both the Barra' and Battle are at the finishing stage now. That point when you think you are there but in fact have a myriad of things still to do. To be honest I keep a log of those things I still have to do and tick them off once done. I can still miss things however like the metal panels behind the exhaust on the Spearfish.

[NARSES2]

One of the things I don't look forward to when getting near the finishing line is canopy framing. And what am I building ? A Barracuda and a Battle  I may be quite a while and end up slightly less sane 

[NARSES2]

Well both the Battle and the Barracuuda are finished. Had a minor disaster witth the Battle. Pushed the prop into place and there was a crack as part of the nose split into its respective fuselage halves  Withdrew prop, applied superglue and it was sorted....well as far as I'm concerned anyway.

I've enjoyed both of these but in all honesty they'd both got to the point where enjoyment was just about to end and that "urghhh" feeling would come a knocking at the door, so I'm glad to get them finished.

I tried a few different things with these builds, some worked, some didn't. Some of the things that worked are worth pursuing some of those that worked, maybe not ? They've both been a learning curve for some reason ; maybe my brain was in a particularly receptive mood over the last couple of weeks ? I've made some silly errors, some of which are down to my dodgy eye, but others are just poor skill levels - must try harder  Anyway whoever is at the next few shows may well get asked what are some fairly basic questions, so bear with me please.

It's strange but as you get older you not only recognise and learn to live with your limitations but you are not afraid of admitting to them either. It's never to late to learn 

Off to see the Tour de France in Town tomorrow so I'll start on the next project on Tuesday. My 1946 BPF will get their fighter. Hawker Sea Fury 

[NARSES2]

Right here's the link to my finished Battle http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,39065.new.html#new

And here's a pic'.



Plus here's the completed Barracuda

[NARSES2]

No modelling today, Tour de France yesterday turned more into a Tour de Pubs 

Good day in the City though despite the rain. A typical City event in a way. The offices emptied about an hour before the race was due, watched them pass, then went back to work....or the pub 

That's two of the must see things crossed off now - Olympic Torch relay a couple of years ago and now the Tour d' 

back to modelling latter in the week probably

[NARSES2]

Well no modelling and virtually nothing at all for the last week. Been very "Thomas Aquinas" (ill) . Sore throat and had an exceptionally high temperature for a few nights and yet was so cold I needed the duvet, woke up in the morning and you'd have thought I'd of been swimming  In all honesty I think I can actually use the word fever in relation to what I had/have. It broke after a couple of nights but I still feel very tired now. Hopefully get back to the bench latter this week.

I at least know what the next projects are