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

[NARSES2]

I know I'm starting to sound like a salesman for AZ, but I like their kits and I had a nice long chat with Mr AZ at Telford.

You do have to be careful however. Their earlier kits were certainly limited run and would need a good cleaning up of some flash plus a fair few of the smaller parts needed replacing. Their latter kits were better and their most recent kits are far better, indeed the Me 109 G/K's are fantastic and possibly the best in 1/72 ? I've just started on their new Kingfisher and they have started to include some location pins and aids to fitting parts.

They have also used other peoples moulds, so again you need to be careful.

So a quick check on Scalemates for origin and age is always helpful and then you can buy the kit knowing what you are letting yourself in for. Plus they are good value for money, in the UK at least.

Advert over, normal service to be resumed 

[DogfighterZen]

I know I'm starting to sound like a salesman for AZ, but I like their kits and I had a nice long chat with Mr AZ at Telford.

You do have to be careful however. Their earlier kits were certainly limited run and would need a good cleaning up of some flash plus a fair few of the smaller parts needed replacing. Their latter kits were better and their most recent kits are far better, indeed the Me 109 G/K's are fantastic and possibly the best in 1/72 ? I've just started on their new Kingfisher and they have started to include some location pins and aids to fitting parts.

They have also used other peoples moulds, so again you need to be careful.

So a quick check on Scalemates for origin and age is always helpful and then you can buy the kit knowing what you are letting yourself in for. Plus they are good value for money, in the UK at least.

Advert over, normal service to be resumed 

Ok, i'll take two of those 109K kits and two of their lowback Spitfire IX kits too... do you accept credit card payment or prefer cash?

Yeah, i normally do a check on scalemates to have an idea of what's in the box if i've never seen the kit in question, but i'm not scared of raw kits, this Monogram F-5F gave me enough work as it is with the warping and gaps on almost every part. The fuselage alone was a nightmare to fix cause the top and bottom halves didn't align properly and there were so many gaps. I've been looking for a nice 1/72 109G or K kit for a while and those seem to be the best choice.

[NARSES2]

I've built both their K4 and K14 and they are a delight. Lots of unused parts for the spares box

I've not built any of their G's yet, although I have 3 or 4. However one of the G's is the proposed butterfly tail version and I think they offer 2 what if boxing's of that

Meanwhile at Morefields Eye Hospital this morning for retina scan. Drops, so no modeling or much else today, but initial diagnosis was no change, which is the best I can hope for, full report in 2/3 weeks.

[DogfighterZen]

Meanwhile at Morefields Eye Hospital this morning for retina scan. Drops, so no modeling or much else today, but initial diagnosis was no change, which is the best I can hope for, full report in 2/3 weeks.

Good news then! 
Re the 109 kits, i'll have to wait a bit cause i've got stuff to buy for the house so, low modelling budget for the next couple of months.

[Radish]

Good news, Chris.
Happy to say that keeping the Type 2 Diabetes at bay for me has been good in terms of diet and general health and also eyesight.

[NARSES2]

Cheers gents 

My ongoing eye problems are not diabetic related, but were found during my annual diabetic retina scan. So it's now become a multi-purpose scan in my case 

The treatable problem is a Posterior vitreous detachment (try saying that after a pint) and the one they can't treat is a small scar across the retina caused by a small tear and bleed. Apparently the PVD is relatively common and once it's happened once it can easily happen again and they have to keep an eye on it (no pun intended). Easily treatable as long as it's caught, to many people ignore the symptoms however.

[Captain Canada]

Been awhile since I checked in ! Good to read Chris. Now I'm going to have to go dig around the cave and see what's in there for AZ kits....

[NARSES2]

A little progress yesterday, including starting to test fit a few of the Kingfisher bits. Looking good so far (touching wood when I type that). Also started to plan how I'm going to go about fixing the 32's struts. I'll definitely need to be sober, that's for sure.

Not much going on modelling wise, this thing called Christmas is starting to encroach. Got my first card today 

[NARSES2]

Some progress 

I managed to get both the CR 32 and Whitley masked up today, so that means the 32 can start to have her 3 coloured upper camouflage once I double check the colours I want to use. Why does no one do pre WWII Hungarian AF paint sets ?  . The Whitley just needs a lot of black on her undersides.

Don't know why but masking is perhaps my least favourite part of the process ? Always seems to take at least twice as long as I initially estimate and somehow seems unproductive to me 

Also made substantial progress on the Kingfisher. I now have a series of sub-assemblies sitting in a small box by the bench  I'm really enjoying this kit and it is going together well, indeed I may see if I can get the USN boxing and do a real world pre War yellow wing version ? Mind you Hannants still have it down as a forthcoming release so might not be available at the show next week ?

[NARSES2]

Started getting some more paint on the 32 and the Whitley, but Christmas is starting to intervene now. Got quite a few social bashes coming up in the next week or so  So progress will strat to slow down, not that it's been that fast anyway.

[Rheged]

So progress will start to slow down, not that it's been that fast anyway.

SO?  Where's the problem?  The joy of being retired is that  you do things at your  own pace.  My building speed is regularly overtaken by racing snails, passing glaciers, continental drift etc.  I enjoy looking at/reading about  other peoples' work, no matter how slowly/rapidly it happens.

[The Wooksta!]

Their lowback mk IX is a rebox with new decals of their lowback XVI - there's little external difference between the mk IX and mk XVI - the latter had a US Packard Merlin with different ancilliaries, necessitating a larger engine top cowl.  There's some evidence that the same top cowl as fitted to standard UK Merlin aircraft.

IIRC, there were very few lowback mk IXs and most of them were exported.

I picked up one of them at Telford, simply for the decals.  Wish I'd bought another one now...

[NARSES2]

Busy old weekend, so very little progress.

However last Friday I was sorting out the paints for my CR 32's upper colour scheme and thought I'd use a couple of Lifecolor French WWII shades. Now I haven't opened these pots for a while, but when I gave them a good old shake they rattled ?? Opened them and basically they were shattered bits of solid pigment. So I topped the bottles up, one with water, the other with thinners, stood them upside down and left them for well over 72 hours. Result ? Flippin' useless, no effect whatsoever. 

So this morning I went through my other Lifecolor pots and almost all of them were in the same condition. The thinners part of the paint basically evaporates over a fairly short period. So basically they will be thrown out. Shame, because some of their basic colours are quite good, with good coverage. I just don't use them enough I suppose.

I'll use Hataka instead.

[Old Wombat]

Oh, man, I hope that doesn't happen to mine!

[NARSES2]

Oh, man, I hope that doesn't happen to mine!

I'd keep an eye on them mate and top them up with water or thinners as soon as they start to thicken. The thinners content seems to evaporate quite quickly.