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

[NARSES2]

Having just finished a "pink" real world Mitchell I think I'll go another way with her - good to see you back mate 

I have a Mosquito stalled in the stash that will be pink, seems to be a colour that's all the rage at the moment then?

Gondor

Obviously  I think both the p.r. pink and the "desert pink" I've used on the MItchell are nice colours. I've dug a Legato (I think) PR Spitfire out of the stash and that will be pink.

Meanwhile no progress as I've been on I.T. duties  My printer decided it no longer wanted to speak to my computer and I had to print something off for a medical appointment. In the end it was because I'd changed my wireless hub to enable fibre optics and whilst those changes were as as easy as a hot knife through butter to do getting things to print was  All I can say is that H.P.'s on-line help facility is absolutely useless unless you already know the answer and can speak computerese. Got it sorted in the end, but no help from H.P. at all.

[DogfighterZen]

Not good to know as my printer is HP... but good to know you got it sorted, getting some external devices to work with computers can become a headache.

[NARSES2]

getting some external devices to work with computers can become a headache.

Especially when you change something, still it's sorted now - touch wood - so all's well that ends well.

[NARSES2]

Not much progress as I spent the day in Guildford yesterday with a couple of ex work colleagues, one of whom came all the way from Holland. Nice trip on the river before the rains came and then the castle and pub 

Hopefully progress will be made on all projects in the coming week.

[NARSES2]

Some progress over the weekend. The Breda is getting very near paint shop time. I'm probably going to go with one of the Italian pre-war 4 colour schemes even though she is an export job, in that way she will match the CR32. Talking of which that has had its cockpit detailed and painted, then glued into the fuselage half. A test fit reveals that the fit of the fuselage with cockpit fitted will be excellent, although very little of it will be seen  Still I'll know it's there 

On checking that the wings of my "engines more or less" build had set level ok I was looking at her head on and without the Peregrines the Whirlwind would certainly suit podded jet engines. Now there's an idea for the future.

[NARSES2]

Progress ?

I need to take my time with the Cr 32 fuselage as the cowling/front end generally is a multi part job and has required some internal bracing (old sprue) so as to keep it far enough apart to fit the cowling top and cowling front. I've managed to get a preaty good fit that will require just a smear or two of PPP to clean it all up. Need to use a minimal amount though, even of this water friendly stuff, as the cowling seems to be full of finely moulded grills and other bits and bobs, all way to easy to lose. So slowly does it.

The Breda meanwhile has had it's cowling fitted and so can enter the paint shop. Getting this to fit nicely was slightly problematical however. Now I'm a fan of AZ kits (and RS which I swear are their long lost cousins) and this one falls into what I call their middle period. In this period they tended to use resin for some parts and provide the canopies as vacform- with a spare- however the flaw with them was the instruction sheets, which left a fair bit to be desired. One problem is that the parts illustrated in the sheet often bear no resemblance to what they look like on the sprue and the other is that the construction sequence has not been properly thought through (tested ?) and it can actually be quite hard to discern what it is they'd like you to do.

The Breda is a case in point. Now they would have you construct the resin engine (with etched bits), attach that to the resin one piece exhaust collector ring, fit the whole assembly into the resin cowling and then glue that to the fuselage. Well a better modeller than me might be able to do that, but I just couldn't get it to sit square on the fuselage. So in the end I immersed  the collector ring in warm water for a while which gave it a little more give. This enabled me to fit it to the front of the fuselage correctly. After letting it set I attached the engine to the front of the fuselage and once dry the cowling simply slid into place - spot on  A note has been made and placed into the other boxing I have of this kit 

[TheChronicOne]

Handy solution. Quick, clean and neat!

[NARSES2]

and provide the canopies as vacform- with a spare-

The canopy is by far the weakest part of the kit. To start with it has a very odd shape, now we can't blame AZ for that as it's down to the aircraft's designers, but it does suffer in terms of quality. The framing is very difficult to make out which is why I screwed the first one up and then the odd shape of the beast makes it even more difficult. Not one of their best  and I'm glad that on their recent 109's they've moved to styrene canopies. Still onwards and upwards.

[NARSES2]

As a complete departure I started on my IBG Models 1/72 Crusader AA tank last night. Now this is quite possibly the first tank I've built in 40 odd years. Looks as though it will go together nicely and quite quickly, however I realised that I'm going to have to rethink the way I normally paint my models, or more accurately the order in which I paint things. Some bits are not going to be reachable if I leave the majority of paintwork to the end as I usually do. I also need to see what paints I have that are suitable for it. To be honest I'm not even sure what colour a late War, 1945'ish, British Army domestically produced armoured vehicle would be ? Still I have some old Humbrol Authentics lurking somewhere.

One decision I did make was to model it clean, no weathering, the excuse being it's part of a barracks "open day" immediately post War and before they let the locals in  *

* I read a comment once from an ex senior RN Petty Office who remarked that when his ship had an open day just after the War had ended the local schoolkids managed to do more damage to it then the German's had managed in 6 years 

[Old Wombat]

* I read a comment once from an ex senior RN Petty Office who remarked that when his ship had an open day just after the War had ended the local schoolkids managed to do more damage to it then the German's had managed in 6 years 

Why doesn't that surprise me?


A (very) quick search seems to indicate this as the best paint for End of War/Immediate Post-War vehicles;

NW Europe: 1945 Pattern No.24 -1942
B.S. Designation: B.S.381
Humbrol No.75 Deep Bronze Green   

[Rick Lowe]

* I read a comment once from an ex senior RN Petty Office who remarked that when his ship had an open day just after the War had ended the local schoolkids managed to do more damage to it then the German's had managed in 6 years 

Why doesn't that surprise me?


A (very) quick search seems to indicate this as the best paint for End of War/Immediate Post-War vehicles;

NW Europe: 1945 Pattern No.24 -1942
B.S. Designation: B.S.381
Humbrol No.75 Deep Bronze Green

That would be about right, the story I heard was that this is how the normal British Army tank green looked after they'd 'bulled' it up by wiping the vehicle down with diesel, to clean it up and give it a bit of a shine.

[NARSES2]

Thanks gents. I always think of that as the 60/70's colour for some reason. I have it in the paint trays as well 

Mainly been priming some bits and bobs, but the Crusader AA sub-assemblies are complete. Took me less then 3 hours in all the fit is that good.  I've built some of IBG's aircraft kits, which if I'm honest are a little fussy and perhaps over detailed for 1/72 but they've been producing armour for much longer and their design philosophy is perhaps slightly more mature ? Anyway I'll be looking at some more of their armour at shows as they do some slightly more unusual stuff then the usual Panthers, Tigers, Shermans and T.34's 

[Mossie]

A tip for Humbrol 75, the general consensus is it's a bit bright.  I did a JB Models L118 gun as a ceremonial piece, a coat of Klear both shined it and deepened up the green nicely.

[NARSES2]

I decided to go through my boxes of Humbrol Authentics and amongst the various ancient and modern uniform colours I found some British Army Dark Bronze Green and a tin of track colour  Also various shades and types of leather that will get used for seat cushions 

Stirring has commenced.

[Rick Lowe]

I decided to go through my boxes of Humbrol Authentics and amongst the various ancient and modern uniform colours I found some British Army Dark Bronze Green and a tin of track colour  Also various shades and types of leather that will get used for seat cushions 

Stirring has commenced.

RESULT!