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

NARSES2 · July 13, 2019, 05:54:31 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on June 23, 2019, 04:48:03 AM

I'll get my coat

Well I did, and my passport before it needs renewing, and buggered off for a couple of weeks and have been completely out of the Loop for a couple of weeks. First time I haven't bothered with Internet access for so long for at least 10/15 years ? and strangely relaxing it has been. In all honesty I think I just needed the complete break. Also caught up with some reading

Back now and having put my Moderator's hat back on will probably spend the next 3 days reading every post made while I was away $:-\$ Still I also got my mojo back whilst away and know what I'll be working on from the middle of next week or so, both real world and what if. Will include some fresh starts and part started's, with maybe one particular long term resident of the hangar.

Chris

zenrat · July 13, 2019, 06:09:42 AM

Sorry, who are you?

NARSES2 · July 13, 2019, 06:13:26 AM

Quote from: zenrat on July 13, 2019, 06:09:42 AM
Sorry, who are you?

Someone who still has full Moderation powers

TheChronicOne · July 13, 2019, 02:11:35 PM

WB, hombre!!!! A good decompressing is always useful.

NARSES2 · July 16, 2019, 05:53:59 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on July 13, 2019, 05:54:31 AM

Back now and having put my Moderator's hat back on will probably spend the next 3 days reading every post made while I was away $:-\$

Completed a day earlier than scheduled

Old Wombat · July 16, 2019, 07:41:54 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on July 16, 2019, 05:53:59 AM
Quote from: NARSES2 on July 13, 2019, 05:54:31 AM

Back now and having put my Moderator's hat back on will probably spend the next 3 days reading every post made while I was away $:-\$

Completed a day earlier than scheduled

Well done, sir!

NARSES2 · July 21, 2019, 03:41:16 AM

Some progress.

The Mitchell is now ready for her transfers so it's possible she will be finished this week. She's gone together well, although paradoxically the exceptional fit has caused me a couple of problems when I got near the finish line. A couple of very slight errors on my part in part placement early on had knock on effects latter in the build. It's really brought the depth perception problems caused by my eye problem to the fore $:-\$

Also making progress on my AZ Models Breda 65 and this one will be a wif, although I do need to confirm the intended air force didn't have them as they had a fair few Italian types in service. Very much a kit in the short run vein, although a good example of the genre. Although if you'd just built one of their fantastic 109's you might be in for a shock

NARSES2 · July 22, 2019, 06:10:46 AM

Mitchell has it's main transfers on and probably half of the stencils, all of which are legible

They are pretty tough, but take a little longer to come off the backing paper than recent Airfix transfers I've used, plus they grab very quickly. Still mustn't grumble even if I do

TheChronicOne · July 22, 2019, 03:04:19 PM

Ha!!! Every time I come across those that grab very quickly I roll my eyes and holler out, "water... SLIDE " then big time eye roll as I curse and sling more water on it. It's one extreme or the other, I tell ya... it's either that or the ones that never settle and even an hour later you breathe on it and it moves 10mm.

I'm getting close to making my Mitchell purchase!! I'm going with the U.S. version. I'm having nutty thoughts of building it alongside the old tool....

Bonne chance on that AZ kit, I've had about enough short-run-shennanigans this year so I'll say, "thanks for hopping on that one!" Stuff be tough to build, but someone's gotta do it. . ..

NARSES2 · July 23, 2019, 05:59:29 AM

Quote from: TheChronicOne on July 22, 2019, 03:04:19 PM

Bonne chance on that AZ kit, I've had about enough short-run-shennanigans this year so I'll say, "thanks for hopping on that one!" Stuff be tough to build, but someone's gotta do it. . ..

Thanks for that. I've built a lot of "short run" and resin kits and providing you take your time they build up o.k. and can be enjoyable. Indeed some of the more recent tooling's from the likes of AZ, Special Hobby and RS can be as good as a lot of modern main stream kits.

At the other end of the scale I have a POLAiR (Euromodel) injected plastic kit of the PZL-P.50 which has to be the worst model kit I have ever seen, and I include Unicraft in that

. Huge shame as I'd love to put it in September 1939 Polish in-service markings.

NARSES2 · July 24, 2019, 05:59:11 AM

The Mitchell now has its stencils on and can get its matt coat once it cools down a bit. I got a little work done in this morning's heat and not only was the paint drying quickly but even the Revell Contacta glue I was using was.

I also got the resin parts included in the Breda kit cleaned up. Some nice casting on the exhaust collector ring/exhaust outlet in particular, but it was "interesting" getting it off its backing piece. Still patience and a tiny drill bit got me there in the end.

I've also confirmed that my intended uses didn't have any, but was surprised to find out that Chile, Paraguay, Portugal and Iraq did.

NARSES2 · July 25, 2019, 05:52:52 AM

To hot to model so the only modeling related stuff today was to see if I had the bits I need for my Engines, more or less build. I think I have.

NARSES2 · July 26, 2019, 06:20:15 AM

Well the Mitchell's not going to get finished this week, she'll almost be there, but not quite.

I've had a good think about my GB project and think I've sorted out how I'm going to do it, although whether I have the necessary skills will be another matter. Still it will be a major departure from my usual change the markings or build a kit which is of a paper project anyway, so I'm quite looking forward to it.

NARSES2 · July 28, 2019, 12:37:05 AM

Ah the joys of vac-form canopies

The Breda has one and whilst I don't normally have to many problems with them the Breda has an odd canopy to start with, add that to the fact that it's not that good a moulding with some very indistinct frame lines and you have problems. It's a shame really as the rest of the kit is very well moulded and a good fit.

Anyway I had a go at it yesterday and thank goodness they include a second canopy

After screwing up the first one I decided to tackle it a little differently. One of the major problems is that the canopy has front panels which are obviously designed to give the pilot some downward vision but which then cause real fitting problems. So I've cut these off which leaves me with a "normal" canopy. This has had some thin strip fitted to the inside bottom edge of it, my normal practice, this gives you something you can glue to the inside of the cockpit and just makes things a little easier to handle and fit. I'll deal with the front panels latter. They may be slightly to large for Clearfix, but a combination of that and some clear plastic sheet should do the job.

Most of AZ's recent kits have injected canopies. I can see why they shied away with this one as it would have probably needed 3 or 4 pieces and as said it has an odd shape, but I so wish that had a go.

NARSES2 · July 29, 2019, 06:09:04 AM

Well the Breda is now a complete airframe and will need very little remedial work to get it ready for the paint shop

The Mitchell has had it's matt coat and I've fitted the .transparencies. Had a bit of fun with some of these. They would of been far easier to fit if I'd done it prior to assembling the wings to the fuselage and just masked them for the main paint job. Add that to the fact that I had some finger fumbles this morning and as I said they were fun $:-\$ Needless to say I've put a large note into the box of my second kit to remind me of this when I come round to building it.