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

[NARSES2]

Small update.

The Thunderbolt has had some panels masked and painted different metal shades and to be honest you can't notice most of them and those you can I don't like  I'm beginning to think this is a technique you can't really do with a brush without lots of practice and experimentation. Still onward and upwards, until you fall over the sheer drop at the end of the climb 

Meanwhile the PZL. Have I mentioned the canopy in previous communiques ?  Well I've done the framing. There are a couple of indications on the canopy, well they might just be flaw marks, but other than that you're on your own. Still that's not a great hassle and the job is now done. I've also got the kits transfers on it, which are nice and behaved well. Now it's time for all the fiddly bits and some unit markings from a Techmod sheet, once I've decided which one as there's some nice squadron insignia on it.

In all honesty if it wasn't for the canopy this would be a nice kit. The canopy isn't just its Achilles Heel it's as though Thetis misread the omens and instead of dipping her baby son in the Styx simply ran a swab over his ankles leaving the rest of him vulnerable. I'm beginning to think I got a dodgy copy ? Surely if all their canopies were like this then I'd have read about it somewhere ?

[Rheged]

In all honesty if it wasn't for the canopy this would be a nice kit. The canopy isn't just its Achilles Heel it's as though Thetis misread the omens and instead of dipping her baby son in the Styx simply ran a swab over his ankles leaving the rest of him vulnerable.

What a wonderfully erudite classical allusion!!  I am most impressed with your familiarity with Greek mythology.

[NARSES2]

In all honesty if it wasn't for the canopy this would be a nice kit. The canopy isn't just its Achilles Heel it's as though Thetis misread the omens and instead of dipping her baby son in the Styx simply ran a swab over his ankles leaving the rest of him vulnerable.

What a wonderfully erudite classical allusion!!  I am most impressed with your familiarity with Greek mythology.

Blame my old English master "Duffy" Clayton. A lovely man who had a great love of the Classics and used to get us to read "simplified" versions as 11/12 year olds. Some of the greatest adventure stories ever written 

[NARSES2]

Thunderbolt is still consuming masking tape. It must have shares in Tamiya   

The PZL has all of its transfers on now and the couple of Techmod ones I used behaved impeccably  I do love the Polish A.F. squadron insignia, brightens up an otherwise bland airframe  . You can certainly see the French influence in it, but then that's been happening since the mid 1700's 

Having done that I started on the resin fiddly bits. Some usable with the aid of a very sharp blade and some are just lost in a lump of resin. So raided the spares boxes for a decent tail wheel and a couple of other bits, including a better pair of main wheels.

Also started work on the Fokker but that's detailed elsewhere.

PS - The cricket match I was due to be playing in was cancelled due to Friday's downpour, whence the progress. Shame as it would have been decent conditions this afternoon

[zenrat]

WRT different colour panels on NMF aircraft my theory on this is either mostly one shade with very few alternate panels dotted around, or many panels in many shades.
I don't think an in between approach works.  It's either all or almost nothing.
MiG-21I is all (silver car paint base and then four different metalisers brushed onto panels).
MiG 21 Analogue - 17 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
MiG Ye 37 is almost nothing (control surfaces, airbrakes and inspection panels).
MiG Ye-37 Starscream 8 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[NARSES2]

Cheers Fred.

I'm beginning to see the truth in the all or almost nothing approach. It's very much a steep learning curve, but at least I'm learning.

I don't do many natural metal aircraft because of my particular interests, but it would be nice to have the ability to do more if I wanted.

I obviously need to take a look at "metalisers". I thought they were purely airbrush.

[Nick]

My method is to spray the entire aircraft in a Halfords Nissan Silver or similar and then break out the varied pots of silver or steel or gunmetal to do two or three panels on each surface of the aircraft. Breaks up the overall effect and looks rather effective IMHO.

One trick is do the moving parts (flaps and ailerons) in one shade of silver and fixed panels in another. Gives some symmetry especially where parts may have been produced and painted separately before assembly.

[zenrat]

I use Mr Metal Color metalisers (made by Gunze Sangyo) for this purpose.  They brush on very well and can be polished up afterwards with a soft cloth.
They do tend to dry up before I finish the pot though.

[NARSES2]

Bit of a  this morning. I've somehow managed to damage my left shoulder, in all honestly I think I just slept awkwardly on it. Anyway it's very painful and restricts my movement.I shouldn't of tried to do any modelling if I'm honest, but I did. Anyway I dropped th P.47 and one of the undercarriage legs broke off. It's flown off somewhere and I can't find it. I have another couple of kits so I will use one of the legs from that.

[NARSES2]

Haven't posted here for a bit, because I've not been feeling 100%. If I'm honest I had a bit of a "turn" a couple of weeks ago and I'm still trying to get over it. The doctors don't know what it actually was/is, although they have run a fair few tests but nothing conclusive has come from them. They are still waiting for the results of a couple more tests. At least I'm getting my monies worth for all those years of NHS contributions 

Whilst whatever happened hasn't stopped me getting about and getting on with my life it has meant that it's slowed me down considerably and I do get tired remarkably quickly. It's also affected my ability to concentrate for longer periods and that obviously has had an effect on my modelling, especially when combined with my ongoing hand/eye co-ordination issues.

Anyway I finally got down to getting a little done this weekend and have got the first transfers on the Thunderbolt and sorted out what still needs to be done on it. Likewise with the PZL. I've now got the undercarriage sorted and fixed. I've used a combination of the kit parts and bits from the spares box here as some of the kit parts were a little ill defined. The PZL is the nearest to being finished, but I've no idea when as progress is far, far slower than it was pre "turn". Still at least I'm finally making some again 

[kitbasher]

You look after yourself, Chris.  And regardless of whatever's happened, your build and posting rate is still way more than mine!

Looking to more progress pics soon, and hopefully catching up again.

[NARSES2]

Cheers mate

At least the 20/20 cricket cheered me up yesterday. It's always good to beat the Aussies, but to thump them is 

[zenrat]

Was there cricket?   

Bring on the Ashes.

[NARSES2]

Was there cricket?   

You can't really call 20/20 cricket IMHO, but we did win 

The 50 over, one day series starts Friday, much better form of the game, although I do understand 20/20's place and part in the game from a financial point of view.

Got to wait until Nov 2021 (hopefully) for the next Ashes, World Cup 20/20 before then.

[zenrat]

Nothing whatsoever about the 20/20 series on the TV or radio news here.
A small article on the Aussie Grauniad website points out we are now No.1 in the world 20/20 rankings.  But you're right, it's not proper cricket.