Nick's Notes

[Nick]

Orkney is crawling with military history, from brochs to Martello towers to World Wars (and after).  The old Kirkwall airfield at Hatston is now an industrial estate, but it does have  Skua , Gladiator, Swordfish, Dakota, Sparrow hawk   and  Seafire Roads. The site below might interest people

http://www.forgottenairfields.com/united-kingdom/scotland/orkney-and-shetland/hatston-s886.html

That's the very site I got my info from. The US version of that is fascinating.
I've been pondering a visit to the far north of Scotland and the islands but it may have to wait a few years.

[Nick]

I know the T-45 is merely a version of the BAe Hawk beefed up for carrier work but I have a strong feeling that Italeri just copied the moulds.

There are a few differences here and there but the parts breakdown on the sprue is so similar I think they took a surplus Hawk 100 mould and converted it to the T-45 prototype. The nose is more rounded and doesn't have a light in the tip, the tailhook is present instead of the twin strakes, and other little bits.

[Nick]

Some of you might have spotted my sale thread in the Swap Shop. No? It's here...    http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,42103.0.html

There's a reason for this. I've kind of lost interest. Got no focus. Too much going on in life. I need to be finding a place of my own and to do that means clearing the bills and saving cash. I need a better job, one that pays more and affords me more regular hours to have a social life. I get home from work and I'm tired and all I want to do is sit and watch TV and switch off.

I struggle to finish 4 kits a year yet I buy 10 or more. Too many spur of the moment purchases, mostly last minute at shows (SMW 10 minutes before closing etc!).

Looking back at all my purchases and the contents of the stash I've bought a lot of kits over the years with some bright ideas but no practical plan for building. It doesn't help that I have had over 150 kits packed away in boxes in the loft and at the bottom of the wardrobe and on top of bookcases and on the desk and under the desk and buried deep in a tiny cupboard I have to stand on a chair to see into (and you know how tall I am! ).

I'm pretty sure I'm now down to about 75-90 kits, most of which are unsellable as being bagged with no decals or being half-built. I'll look at clearing a few more kits in due course, probably next month. There's a few gems I do want to keep as I have a plan for them or they were hard to find.  The model desk needs a good clean as there's a thick layer of dust on the kits I started 3 years ago. 

Still going to some shows, Perth and Telford are the only definites this year. I feel unable to commit to anything right now, even holiday plans. 

[zenrat]

If you don't feel it, don't force it.
It is after all a hobby which is meant to be something one does to relax.
Sorry to see you go but as you are keeping a toe in the water it'll be easy to slip back in.

[NARSES2]

Yup sometimes a break away from the hobby means you come back with far more enthusiasm, as said don't force it

[kitbasher]

Yes don't pack it in, just go with the flow. I've done very little modelling of late for reasons similar to you (early start + commutes + work = tired.  Odd to say but I've found you can still enjoy modelling even when not actually building simply by having a clear out, doing some research, staying in touch through the forum, etc, cos suddenly the urge to build will come back.  And I'd stick to simple builds too.  A Hobbyboss easy build for example - chuck it together and paint it up just for a laugh.  Very theraputic!

[Nick]

At the London show last December I picked up the AZ Models 1/72 SR.53. As Chris will tell you I dithered a while before eventually going for it! This is the version with the what-if RAF markings inside, the 'Prototype' version is the exact same sprue so you can get that and use your own decals instead. The markings supplied are for the RAF - 1Sqn, 74 Tiger Sqn or 20Sqn.
You could go for many what-if schemes such as West Germany or Netherlands if you assume the SR.177 didn't go ahead.

One main sprue in dark grey, 1 clear canopy sprue, 37 parts in all. Choice of Firestreak Missiles or dummy test missiles.
http://www.modelarovo.cz/saunders-roe-sr-53a-rocketeer-f-mk-i/

Parts are not as crisp as you might expect, particularly on the cockpit panel, but the panel lines are soft enough not to resemble the worst days of Matchbox trench diggers 
Getting the parts off the sprue is tricky as the joins are quite large and need some sanding down afterwards.

The cockpit went together easy enough. Attaching the wings to the fuselage was more awkward as you need to both clean up the wing edge and the 'pins' and make the holes larger. These aren't the pinholes of Tamiya but more the thick knitting needles your granny had!

The fuselage halves have no pins or slots to get them together. This will mean being careful when it comes to putting the two together. Lots of test fitting is anticipated. I already see a very slight banana effect with a 2mm gap at the nose when body and tail are held.

The tailplane needs care. Even with minor care there is a huge gap below it and the tail. As it is meant to sit on top with a little fairing I used a blob of PPP filler in the gap and held it in place with pegs while it dried. Now I need to sand off the little bit of excess putty and tidy it up.

[Nick]

While working on the SR.53 this afternoon I noticed a little tiny stub of silver painted plastic on the bench. On closer inspection I realised it was one of the guns from my Finnish Flitzer which I moved last week. It had obviously fallen out while I repaired the landing gear from a heavy landing 

So I got the glue out, picked the gun barrel up with tweezers - it's tiny, about as long as my little fingernail is wide. PING! Off it went into the wild unknown, aka my bedroom floor. I then spent half an hour on my hands and knees looking with a torch in the dark corners.
I gave up. The floor wasn't as clean as I thought  
I then spent an hour moving boxes and bags around and tackled the carpet with the Hoover.

Ten minutes ago I looked at my bench and underneath the wing of this Flitzer was some form of Schräge Musik that was pointing down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%A4ge_Musik
The bloody gun barrel didn't go on the floor. It must have bounced off the table and stuck under the blasted plane.

At least I have a nice tidy room now.

[PR19_Kit]

That gun barrel must have been of the self-homing variety. 

[NARSES2]

I've no idea why but AZ's kits of British types are as Nick describes very "limited run" whereas their Me 109's are top notch.

I did try to discuss this with Mr AZ at Telford but we hit the language barrier. Having said that his English was way superior to my non existent Czech ! In all honesty I don't really mind as I'm prepared for it 

[Nick]

Back at the Workbench again!

Got a little mojo back in time for Telford and currently have 5 things on the go.... Maybe not the best idea but we'll see!

I plan to finish the AZ Models SR.53 for Telford. It's fully built other than the wheels, canopy and missiles. It looked good in the Halfords Aluminium spray this morning, just need to do the blue spine and fin. I'm going to use the No.1 Squadron decals that came with the kit.

Found a pair of 1/144 kits (both LS Models) in the stash;
Tornado F.3 which could get the USAF grey treatment. Got a few spare decals in my folder for that.

F-14 Tomcat which will get a special RAF scheme as seen on the 208 Squadron Buccaneer in 1991. The Halfords Gloss Black was drying fairly well last night but I won't touch it again till Thursday night for decals.

At last years SMW (or was it the year before ?) I got the Monogram Orient Clipper spaceplane which will be done OOB. The Halfords Gloss Appliance White seems to have worked well, gave it a quick top-up this morning. Bit worried it won't dry fully before the weekend so I can't get the black and silver paint on top.

And a long term special, the Rockheed-Boing Space Shuttle concept from the 1970s. Looks something like this - https://thehighfrontier.blog/2016/07/27/the-sunnyvale-shuttle-lockheeds-star-clipper/
or this https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=25959.0

Solid resin in two main parts, is about 15cm tall but has only a wobbly stand. I have an idea for a Perspex stand but need to talk to Joe or Martin at SMW about it.
I started this about 10 years ago and immediately had trouble with the white finish - lots of pinholes. Dumped it back in the box and forgot about it. Found it last weekend and on Monday I stripped it all back with Fairy Power Spray and started again. I plan to take my time this time round and apply lots of small fine layers of spray white for the good finish it deserves.
Might look out for some suitable NASA markings instead of the kit bits but the scale is hard to sort out.

[NARSES2]

Ah the joys of pin holes, I feel for you Nick 

Had a bit of a problem with then during my High Flyer build. PPP and Mr Surfacer  solved the problem, eventually 

[kerick]

Sounds like you have a challenging array of work in front of you. I'll be watching.

[Nick]

The Black Tomcat is looking good. Bit like this - http://www.hottail.nl/airforces/uk/raf/images/Buccaneer.jpg
The black paint dried well but it does pick up the dust!
The canopy is silver inside because the cockpit is utterly bare. Needs the landing gear, cockpit and canopy external lines doing yet. Decals need some Micro Sol tonight and maybe I will do a Klear coat at Telford.

SR.53 - I am a bit worried now. Doing the undercarriage and canopy should be easy. It's the Revell Acrylic Blue* I've used for the fin and spine, I think it's going to be more streaky than a slice of cheap bacon. Another coat or two might do it BUT will it dry in time for Saturday?
The missiles need doing too but all over white with a bit of grey and black isn't that hard 

*Maybe I should have used the Xtracolor Gloss Blue but that has a drying time measured in weeks, if not months.

Tornado can wait but could be a quick build too.
The concept Shuttle is a long term project.
Space Clipper is a slight possibility if I can decide which parts to paint black.

[PR19_Kit]

*Maybe I should have used the Xtracolor Gloss Blue but that has a drying time measured in weeks, if not months.

The only solution it EVER drying that I've found is to leave it 24 hrs and then give it a coat of Klear.