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

[Rheged]

Secondly, and this with my historians hat on, please give some thought to passing on the annotated photos etc to some suitable archive.  History is full of the stories of the great/good/notorious, but material from the ordinary blokes who did extra-ordinary things  is fairly scarce.

I totally agree with you. My niece (who will be my executor) has already been told where and to whom a lot of my stuff needs to go and now these will be added to that list. I will find somewhere suitable, and who actually wants them, and then they will go in a box with that organisations contact details on it 

What a well organised and thoughtful gentleman you are! I am both impressed with, and delighted by, your decision.

[NARSES2]

Started musing and making my Telford lists over the last couple of days. Mainly tools, paints and other accessories at the moment, but perusing Hannant's I noticed they have got a few more Hobby 2000 kits in. Now assuming these are all ex Hasegawa I could be tempted. At least they are a reasonable price  Research needed I think.

[TheChronicOne]

Hobby 2000, yeah? Sounds interesting. I wish we had a "Telford" around here. I think the closest model show to ever come around here is about 4 hours drive away. I'm just going to start mailing you guys my finished models so you can put them in the shows for me. hahahah

[NARSES2]

I wish we had a "Telford" around here. I think the closest model show to ever come around here is about 4 hours drive away. I'm just going to start mailing you guys my finished models so you can put them in the shows for me. hahahah

It is something to look forward to each year, a place to catch up with friends 

Oddly where I live in London most of the UK's model shows involve a minimum of 2 hours or so each way by public transport for me. Plus being on a Sunday, most of them anyway, can make it even more awkward. That's why I look forward to Telford so much.

[NARSES2]

Anyway had a  moment yesterday with the Breda. I've got the painting done and so went to get her transfers out. She was due to join the Hungarian Air Force just in time to take part in the so called "Little War" between Hungary and the newly formed Slovak State in early 1939. Now I could have sworn I'd checked to see if I had the correct size of national markings, the three colour triangle style, but did I ? Did I heck. Nothing I've got comes anywhere near the right size or shape. What I'd forgotten is that the trailing edge of the wing really does effect the shape and size of the marking and none in the stash are suitable and can't even be cut up and amended to make them so 

Now if I'd noticed this early I could have painted them with some very careful masking, but the dark colours of the camouflage and the large amount of white required makes this a no no unless I want to start again with the paintwork. Another option would be to use transfers stripes of white, red and green. So off I go to the big box of "odds and sods" and what do I find amongst all the other Xtradecal sheets ? Green stripes are not included in their multi colour packs, everything else, but not green 

Now as mentioned elsewhere in looking for the appropriate national markings I discovered a sheet of Royal Bulgarian AF roundels so she will now be joining that air force. The Bulgarian's had an extremely eclectic mix of aircraft pre-war so the back story will be that they were a gift from the Italian's as a thank you for Bulgarian diplomatic support during the build up to the invasion off Greece.

[NARSES2]

Work on the Breda has reached a point where I can start the infamous sheet of paper titled "Breda 65 - Final bits and bobs". It's these finals that seem to take an age. The worst bit is going to be the canopy framing. The vacform canopies are the poorest part of this kit. I know I have dodgy eyesight but there are no discernable frames on them at all. So painted micro tape and a freehand approach after studying some line drawings I have I think. Oh she also has a very, very odd canopy. If anything ever deserved the nickname "greenhouse" then this one did.

On a completely different note I also got a message from Paypal this morning that my Annual Photobucket non advert membership has been renewed for £8.36  Somehow during all that fuss when they raised their prices, then reduced them again they continued to honour my agreement. So credit where it's due.

[NARSES2]

Well the Breda has been duly enrolled into the Royal Bulgarian AF. Their aircraft of the period carried very few markings, just the national ones, some had a couple of identification numbers and those donated by the King had his cypher so you'd expect it to have been an easy job ? The national markings performed beautifully, but the first numbers I tried to use from the spares box disintegrated once you took them out of the water and the next ones I used were of the "if you think we are coming off this backing sheet then you have another thing coming" type. Seriously I made a mug of tea whilst waiting for the first one to come off. Once off however it behaved o.k.

Whilst getting the 4 numbers on the Breda I managed to get a little bit done to my real world CR 32, so progress is being made. Just need to get the Whitley up and running again now.

[NARSES2]

Progress.

I've started to do the canopy framing on the Breda and I'm surprised the pilot could actually see anything out of it at all, it's that complicated. Bearing in mind that this was designed as a ground attack aircraft makes it even more difficult to come to terms with ? While looking for some transfers for the Whitley I discovered that there was a version of the Breda that had a mid-upper turret which was also a framers delight. Apart from the Italians, Portugal and Iraq also used this version and whilst checking on Scalemates to see if the AZ kit has a direct line of descent from the Azure-Fromme kit which I also have in the stash (it hasn't) it looks as though AZ will be bringing a kit of this out 

The Whitley has been retrieved and dusted off, I was amazed at how much it had gathered. Now I'm trying to work out how far I got before she was parked. I think she's ready for paint, but I need to double check that. I've also found some transfers for her.

Thinking about my next project I decided I wanted something relatively simple and quick (famous last words) and saw I had a Hasegawa Macchi MC 202 in the stash so the Hungarian's might just be getting one to continue their long association with Italian types.

[NARSES2]

No idea why but in looking at The Chaos's finished At-At I had an  image of one plodding through the snow to attack rebel positions and relieving it'self on the way in the same carefree way horses do  Now that would make an interesting conversion ?

[Rheged]

No idea why but in looking at The Chaos's finished At-At I had an  image of one plodding through the snow to attack rebel positions and relieving it'self on the way in the same carefree way horses do  Now that would make an interesting conversion ?

Its path traceable by a row of steaming piles............what a surreal picture that conjures up!

A friend's son who has outgrown his Star Wars models repainted his AT-AT, including a flagpole at the stern flying a White Ensign, and the name HMLS BEHEMOTH lettered neatly on the side.   He had the beginnings of a backstory sketched out:- His Majesty's Land Ships patrolled  Syrtis Major, Cydonia and Olympus Mons during the early 22nd century, after Mars joined the Commonwealth. Their task was to protect the populace against the  "Free Traders" and other pirate/slaver  groups.

[TheChronicOne]

That's not bad scifi. 

[Old Wombat]

No idea why but in looking at The Chaos's finished At-At I had an  image of one plodding through the snow to attack rebel positions and relieving it'self on the way in the same carefree way horses do  Now that would make an interesting conversion ?

Weird but I had a very similar image!

[zenrat]

I had one of the large "action figure" scale AT-ATs as a youth.  I started to repaint it in splinter pattern camo - aqua and black - but lost interest.

Someone (Weaver?) should take an AT-AT and put tracks on it.

[PR19_Kit]

Someone (Weaver?) should take an AT-AT and put tracks on it.

That'd be a 'TrackAT-AT' then. 

Yeah, I know, coat, hat etc.

[zenrat]

Or, if build shabby, rusted and heavily weathered, a Track A TAT tatt.