Thorvics'Blog

[Thorvic]

Finally managed to get to the desk at the weekend, I was actually meant to be finishing off some of the smaller tidying up jobs that are still to do but found one of the drawing I had scaled up, a gash Fujimi FG1 phantom kit I picked up off eBay for spares some time ago and a Matchbox Phantom in the accessible stash pile that I had cut up to do an HL conversion to.

So instead of the planned tidying I was meant to be doing and instead of carrying on with some of the kits I had lined up in my work in progress pile, I find myself cutting up a Matchbox Phantom to fit the spare Fujimi Phantom , Cockpit, canopy, nose gear bay and engine exhausts. Soon followed by scratch building new main gear bays in the fuselage and working out how to fit the VG wing to make an F-4MFVS !.

Not what I was meant to be working on but at least its modelling again ! 

[kerick]

Creativity can be uncontrollable! Press on and take some pics please.

[Captain Canada]

LOL....worldwide phenomena 

Cleaning invariably leads to finding something and losing track of the cleaning process.....

[Thorvic]

Well had a great two weeks off the start of July, the first was spent down in Dorset at our old familiar Holiday spot between West Bay and Burton Bradstock (where they filmed some of Broadchurch). Managed to cram in visits to Bovington Tank Museum, Yeovilton FAA Museum but couldn't get over to Plastic Pastimes in Poole. Fiddled with a couple of Airfix kits whilst I was there but obviously couldn't do to much serious modelling.

2nd week was at home, still decent weather but I finally managed to get the FVS Phantom masked up and the upper surface camouflaged, then decaled it at the weekend. Looks OK so far, still need to fit the landing gear, together with sorting out the pylons and weapons before its finished but it does look a bit different to the standard British Toom  .

Must use the momentum of getting the Phantom finished to sort out my SMW builds as progress this year has been nil, despite having the ideas and the kits in hand, the mojo and momentum has been rather lacking 

Will try and get photos of the VG toom sorted this week if I can get it finished.

Geoff

[kitnut617]

Managed to cram in visits to Bovington Tank Museum, Yeovilton FAA Museum but couldn't get over to Plastic Pastimes in Poole.
Geoff

My old stomping grounds before I emigrated to Canada Geoff.  I didn't realize Plastic Pastimes was still open, when I was visiting family in 2002 and went there, they told me then they were closing up --- (btw, there's a nice little pub just around the corner from there called the Bricklayers Arms [my old local although it's changed a bit since I was going there])

[Thorvic]

Its certainly going in its on-line entity, and I think the shop has never actually closed despite numerous announcements from Ray that he'll be closing up that side of the business soon.

Would have liked to have gone looking, but It was a bit too far out of range with my dad in tow, and I get the feeling that he's more mainstream now rather than the old OOP collectors kits he was renowned for.

[Thorvic]

No photos of the VG Phantom just yet I did manage to get it decaled and on its landing gear, then discovered a slight flaw in the build that came to light when attempting to fit the sparrows  . The aft sparrows are not semi recessed into the underside of the fuselage on the FVS but are mounted on the corner edge as per the F-15, due to the internal wheel bays, however I used a kit semi-recessed Sparrow to determine the location of the main gear which was fine until I tried to place a fully painted after market sparrow with its full set of fins, they are too long and would either foul the landing gear or leave the tail fins in the overhanging the speys  . Have had to surgically remove the fins from another kits sparrows and add them to the another pair so I can get a set I can safely fit on the Phantom !!!!.

Must admit I do like the look of it at the moment on its legs with most of its weapons load fitted, although I had to cross check with the latest APR to verify the load and where the pylons actually go as most drawings and artwork show them clean !

[Captain Canada]

Oooh looking forward to seeing this one....sounds awesome !

[Thorvic]

This is the APR in question BTW :-

http://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/?p=1644

[Thorvic]

managed to get the new Sparrows painted and decaled so they were fitted last night and just about fit in the space. Got a sealing coat of satin varnish on to seal the up everything and to take off the sheen. Found the masking on the canopy to have been too great in some areas so had to hand paint a few frames to get the look right. Too late and no light for photos last night but it looks OK and quite different when compared with a standard Phantom.

Getting one finished is a good feeling, so hopefully it will prompt me to crack on with a few more and get those finished along with a SMW build I have to do now the mojo is up and running again.

[Thorvic]

Yay one finished and it wasn't even in the build plan for this year, just was an version i wanted to build and the eureka moment as how best to do it which triggered the mojo 

[PR19_Kit]

Blimey, that's different, to say the least! 

Can we have a look at the underside to see the landing gear and Sparrow mods you had to make please?

[Thorvic]

Blimey, that's different, to say the least! 

Can we have a look at the underside to see the landing gear and Sparrow mods you had to make please?

As requested 

[NARSES2]

Come out well Geoff 

[Thorvic]

Managed to keep a little momentum going on the model front this weekend, I masked up the front canopy of a Fairey Fulmar I'm doing but went sod it when I looked at the rear canopy as I'll need a some new x-acto blades to get that one done correctly (and yes their isn't a mask set currently available  ).

Instead I got on with a pair of Buccaneers an S1 and an S2, the S1 is the Airfix NA-39, fitted with wheel bays, cockpit out wings from an S2 kit I had scrapped and the Freightdog Early Buccaneer set for the nose and tail-plane. The S2 also getting the Freightdog set and I'll be using the Aeroclub undercarriage on both. The S1 will be carrying the Green Cheese set Freightdog did whilst the S2 will be standard FAA from the period whilst still remaining a whiff  .

One thing I have noticed about doing the Buccaneers is that we could really do with a new kit, I know Airfix added a new sprue of Pylons and Weapons, but the basic airframe tool is evolved from the NA-39 and could do with a new tooling with a better breakdown and details. I did actually pop open one of my CMR kits to see how good they are, and whilst the Aftermarket stuff included in the kit is quite extensive I found the actual fit and detail of the airframe somewhat lacking for what is an expensive kit. The only trouble is that Cyber Hobby announced it a couple of years ago, which will put other off doing it, even though they tend to get areas wrong and under-scale the cockpit seating.

Also managed to carve and sand a gearbox bulge for the Fujimi Westland Sea King HAS1, again that will be period FAA but will tie in the above Buccaneer and a couple of previous builds  .

So still plenty to build, other are on the workbench in various states, but these are the current builds for the moment and just glad to be back on the workbench again.