Thorvics'Blog

[PR19_Kit]

For Windows 8 and up, Classic Shell is a must-have. http://www.classicshell.net/

And it looks like it works with Win7 as well according to the website. 

I've never heard of it before, thanks for the link Harro. 

[Gondor]

For Windows 8 and up, Classic Shell is a must-have. http://www.classicshell.net/

Very interesting although I half expected the logo to be yellow 

Gondor

[Thorvic]

Well Windows 10 appears to be OK so far, nothing major has had a wobbly apart from the first time I tried to send a photo in whilst in a Facebook chat to Gondor through Firefox. I suspect it was still indexing the files as it was painfully slow, but has been OK since.

[Thorvic]

Now on modelling related subjects its been a bit hit and miss as have my sister back on her annual visit from Dubai so when she is with us I can hardly bugger off upstairs doing a bit of modelling for a few hours, so more a case of grabbing 15 minutes to do little jobs when I get chance.

Focus remains on the HS-681, got one engine done and two more with the deflected thrust fairings in place and Pylon sorted although both need to be re-scribed once cleaned up, The pylon an the fairings for the fourth engine are still work in progress. Still formulating on quite how to do the main fuselage sponsons, I have the basis for them but need to wok out quite how I will do them to get them a little deeper and quite a bit longer together with sorting the actual landing gear and how to fit it.

Still forcing myself to focus on the job in hand, got a number of other projects to build, plus there are some new kits in the stash that would be nice OOB, or to be whiffed.

In fact spotted something this week that if I can get it scanned will form the basis of decals for at least a couple of builds and possibly more with adaption, but again that's something that will have to wait.

Will actually be quite torn as to what to do next, I know what I should do and what I need to do plus I even know some of it could be fairly straight forward but there are just so many temptations..........

[Thorvic]

Well apart from a bit of sanding on an Engine pylon, not a great deal has been done this week on the HS-681, I did manage to get hold of a drawing and scale it up for a stable-mate of the HS-681 and checked out potential kit donors but that's for a possible project next year (buts its nice to have the idea in the bank so to speak  ).

Actually started watching series 1 of Space 1999 last night, which bought back memories as I remember when it was originally shown on ITV. A very 70s feel and you can sense the evolution from UFO, but still enjoyable to watch. I think I might be tempted to pic up an Eagle or two although I wish they had looked to re-tool the 1/72nd kit rather than re-do it in 1/48th as todays tooling technology would have allowed for decent detailing.

Speaking of Sci-fi kits, somebody on Brit-Modeller was getting excited by what appeared to be an Airfix pre-announcement about the Original Thunderbirds craft, however upon reading and looking at the CGI artwork, its actually a Corgi announcement so It sounds like new diecast's are on the way.

[zenrat]

Frequent ads on TV here for big plastic toy T2 with T4 in the pod.  The new series must be a success.

[Thorvic]

Spotted confirmation that Hornby have a licence to do the Die-cast Thunderbirds as part of the 50th celebrations so these are likely to be the Originals as opposed to the CGI versions, for now.

Anyway not much done this weekend managed to extend my wheel sponsons, bulked out with milliput that has now dried so it will be on with shaping those this week. I did mean to get on with scribing the tail plane and the engines so those could be made ready for fitting once the fuselage is done, but I got side tracked by other jobs to do, plus the odd episode of Space 1999 

[Gondor]

I did mean to get on with scribing the tail plane and the engines so those could be made ready for fitting once the fuselage is done, but I got side tracked by other jobs to do, plus the odd episode of Space 1999 

And there you were saying that My build speed would be slowed by buying KSP 

Gondor

P.S. Don't blame you though 

[Thorvic]

I did mean to get on with scribing the tail plane and the engines so those could be made ready for fitting once the fuselage is done, but I got side tracked by other jobs to do, plus the odd episode of Space 1999 

And there you were saying that My build speed would be slowed by buying KSP 

Gondor

P.S. Don't blame you though 

Yeap I know from experience, although I actually watch them late evening on the main telly so i tend to be too tired at that point to do any effective modelling and certainly not scribing  .

Technically I suppose the problem is a dip in the Mo-Jo as I know what needs doing but I still have some issues to solve such as the undercarriage and how to fit it. Once I have that answer the build should pick up a pace as the rest is just standard assembly once the problems have been solved. I check out ideas, cross reference on-line and see what's in the stash but still awaiting that eureka moment that means that I have an answer to try out (may not work but its worth trying)

[Captain Canada]

I've got an original die=cast one somewhere....should check for it.

I know all about the mojo thing.....yuck !

[Thorvic]

Well with a Bank Holiday weekend of the usual indifferent British Weather I was able to make a little progress on with the HS-681. I managed to get both wheel sponsons created and set up a structure for the landing legs with the wheels evenly placed. Once the gear was sorted as was able to attach the main gear sponsons and blend them in. With a mix of blue tack and Tamiya tape I was able the attach the landing gear and wheels, the tail and the wing with engines to assess the balance.

The fuselage has been re-scribed where the PSR work has been done and the Tail has been fitted in place, next up is to fit the glazing in the nose cone and attach that to the fuselage and do a bit of work to detail the landing gear bays whilst its sill easy to access.

Once I am happy with the fuselage I will add the wing and let that cure as that will need quite s bit of work to blend it in. Once that's been PSR'd I can clean up the lost panel line's I can clean it up and do a primer test shot to identify the surface defects. Once those defects have been resolved I can add any extra detailing before I pre-paint the wing root area, this is to make it easier to mask to deal with once the engines are in place.

I will have to detail the engines and pre-paint them before they can be fitted and set in place, the joins will require some PSR as the pylons are scratch built.

Still lots to do but nice to see it semi assembled and I know what work needs to be done. (Pics taken on Monday will be posted up later)

[Captain Canada]

Busy weekend !

I keep getting the Windows 10 prompt on my laptop so I'd guess I ought to just go through with it and get it done....

[Thorvic]

The components created to that point



The basic engines



The tail



Sponsons fitted and undercarriage in place with blutak 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/Thorvic/P1000564_zpsavelsayl.jpg

A bit wobbly but just getting the idea 



From above



From the side, and loosing the gravity battle, but get over the concept.

Since then the tail has been secured in place and the fuselage is being worked upon, prior to fixing the wing and blending it in.

[kitnut617]

Brilliant bit of kit bashing there Geoff   

[Thorvic]

Busy weekend !

I keep getting the Windows 10 prompt on my laptop so I'd guess I ought to just go through with it and get it done....

Seems OK to me, not had any issues with running it on my Laptop