G-VTOL Build

[PR19_Kit]

Yes, I know it's an RW build but there's a fair amount of interest on the model.

I started on the actual build this evening, and what a job it's been! The first stages are to make up the two instrument panels and Sword's method of avoiding making highly detailed styrene parts is to supply all the details as PE. The forward instrument panel has two styrene mouldings and four PE parts, two of which are sandwiched on top of one another. The rear panel again has two styrene parts and another four PR bits. The whole assemblies are about 1/2" high..........!

I can't help but think I should have sub-contracted the job to Michel_C, my fingers seem to be the wrong scale and my tweezers make excellent catapults for sending feed stuff to the Carpet Monster. So far I've fired three of the PE bits down there, and amazingly found every one!

The seats, next on the list, are even worse, only the core of the seat is styrene, ALL the rest, about nine or ten bits and pieces are PE. 

[zenrat]

The trick with beating the tweezer catapult seems to be to maintain eye contact and track the flying part.  Easier said then done with my eyesight though.

[PR19_Kit]

Tell me about it! But when the part is a 1/72 scale PE HUD it's only about 3 mm long and it's almost impossible to track.

Perhaps I should build a working 1/72 scale AIRPASS radar set from one of my Lightning kits so I can track the damn things!

[kerick]

Flypaper, lots of flypaper.

[Runway ? ...]

Get a glove box
http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/Cole_Parmer_Economical_Glove_Box_Small/EW-34788-00

Not one of those though because they're 1700 quid.

Try getting away from me now you bugger

[Captain Canada]

I've got the PE bits going as spares, if you need them. I built my first one without all the bits....couldn't be arsed.

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for the offer Cap'n, but currently I'm OK having been able to find all of the blasted things, so far anyway.

Here's a pic of the front instrument panel, there's SIX components in that pic, including the HUD glass. I had to source the stuff for that myself, and it was 2.5 mm x 3 mm. 

The rule's there just so you can judge how small the darn thing is.

[Weaver]

I wonder about this obsession with ultra-detailed cockpits.... When was the last time you saw somebody looking into the cockpit of a model at a show, or asking about it? My BAC Thunderbolt (single-engined Lightning) hasn't even got a seat, yet nobody's EVER commented on it or asked why (there is a reason in the backstory).

[PR19_Kit]

I wonder about this obsession with ultra-detailed cockpits.... When was the last time you saw somebody looking into the cockpit of a model at a show, or asking about it? My BAC Thunderbolt (single-engined Lightning) hasn't even got a seat, yet nobody's EVER commented on it or asked why (there is a reason in the backstory).

Good point. 

Maybe I'll just paint the rear cockpit interior black and see if anyone notices?

In many models you can't see in there anyway, the rear cockpit of a TSR2 for instance. I'm not even going to put ANYthing in there for the next one I build. They even produce PE detail sets for 1/144 airliners, and mine don't even have windows, I always use decals for them.

[Old Wombat]

I look in the cockpits of model aircraft at shows & I appreciate the effort put into them but I don't faint or go into paroxysms of ire if they don't.

[Captain Canada]

I wonder about this obsession with ultra-detailed cockpits.... When was the last time you saw somebody looking into the cockpit

Well ?

Years ago, when the site first started, I had built a 48th scale F-16 in CDN colours. I wrote in my post " I super-detailed ( a new to me phrse from ARC ) the cockpit by painting it black, and writing AC/DC and 'Oi' on either side of the panels

[NARSES2]

I wonder about this obsession with ultra-detailed cockpits.... When was the last time you saw somebody looking into the cockpit of a model at a show, or asking about it?

I admire people who can do fantastic jobs but it doesn't bother me if they don't do much more then paint and add a seat. With the lid closed you can't see much. However I personally enjoy putting a little extra work into a cockpit, not much but a little extra, I find it quite relaxing somehow. Horses for courses as they say and most of the time you can't see it anyhow 

I once saw a judge checking an entry in the junior section with a dentists mirror and light, and yes Martin it was Milton Keynes 

[Martin H]

I once saw a judge checking an entry in the junior section with a dentists mirror and light, and yes Martin it was Milton Keynes 

Ive never forgotten it Chris

I use your experience of that day as a classic example of some one who had got the idea about judging, even more so the junior classes completely wrong.

If he was looking for a senior best in show he might have been right. But treating a juniors entry like that is out of order in my book.
So much for encouraging youngsters to take up the hobby.

[PR19_Kit]

A couple of years ago I saw someone doing that to a Class 33 model (OUR Class....) at Telford. How daft can you get? What was he going to check it against? I had to move away to stop myself laughing too much.

[rickshaw]

Personally, the only thing I do nowadays is add an aftermarket seat.  I usually don't paint or add instrument panels unless the cockpit is a side-by-side two seater or rather wide and open.   I don't see the point, really.  Do what can be seen, ignore the rest is my motto.  Kudos to those obsessives who do more but I see little value.