Zenrat's Flying Circus

[PR19_Kit]

A Fiero? Not the most usual model kit on the bench, but interesting nonetheless.

One of the very few rear engined American cars, and I've driven two of them, a Fiero and a Corvair.

[Rick Lowe]

I have yet to attach the rear suspension but I suspect there will be the same issue at the back.
Option 1 is to modify the wheel backs to adjust the offset.
Option 2 is to rummage through the parts boxes of wheels and tyres (and there's more than a few of those) to find something that will work.
Option 3 is to hit it with a hammer.

There's always the fourth option - douse in lighter fluid.

Although its a shame the Fiero (and most car kits) aren't plastic over metal framing.

There's also a fifth option.  Paint the wheel hubs and disk brakes and put it up on cinder blocks

KILL IT WITH FIRE!
Actually, don't - even if you can't think of a solution now, put it aside again and let the 'Leetle Grey Cells' do their thing.

[zenrat]

I'm confident I can modify the kit wheels satisfactorily.  As long as I can separate them without damage.

Construction phase of the Panhard VBL is almost finished.  I just have to attach the tow rope, one door, and a hatch.  Then comes a little light weathering.

[zenrat]

Construction stage of the VBL is complete and i've just had word the figure I ordered for it from France has been posted.
Panhard VBL 10-09-24-02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Panhard VBL 10-09-24-01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

And today i took delivery of an A1 cutting mat.  My bench top is currently home to two A2 mats taped together.  Both looking a little worse for wear (see above).
The new one is hot pink (and meant for quilting) but 1) for what I paid - I don't care and b) military coloured model parts should show up really well on it.

[NARSES2]

That's looking really good Fred. The shape is interesting in particular.

[Rick Lowe]

Agree... and also a nice bonus with the cutting mat colour... Mrs z wouldn't need on for herself, by any chance? Might want to glue it down... 

I saw one in a haberdashery once that would have about covered the desk of the Evil Bank Manager in Despicable Me... I had serious Cutting Mat Envy.
Then I realized I'd still wind up working on an area about 6" square, or less, with the rest covered in 'Useful Bits and Stuff I need to hand"...   

[zenrat]

Even better than the colour is the fact that it is marked out in half inch squares not 1 cm.  For no other reason than it amuses me not to be metric.
Mrs z has been given a blue (metric) SMS A2 cutting mat I had bought for myself but which is now surplus to requirements.
Maybe this will move her slightly closer to actually building her small stash of robot kits.

The look of the VBL is what attracted me to the kit.  It was only when I got it I realised it was an amphibian.
It's also asymmetric.  Torsion bar rear suspension means one rear wheel is further forward than the other.

[NARSES2]

The look of the VBL is what attracted me to the kit.  It was only when I got it I realised it was an amphibian.

I never knew that either.

[zenrat]

The look of the VBL is what attracted me to the kit.  It was only when I got it I realised it was an amphibian.

I never knew that either.

There is a prop on the back of the rear differential.  I painted it red (for OH&S reasons).  You can just see it in the bottom picture.

[zenrat]

Before I weather the VBL there are a few transfers to apply.  I have brushed on some "future" in the appropriate places.

Now my In Memoriam GB builds are finished I have picked back up the Eduard MiG 15 Profipack I started.  I say started, but all I did was wash the resin parts, remove the casting blocks, and glue the front cockpit bulkhead to the cockpit floor.
Today I painted the ejector seat and its rails.  It seems the MiG 15 predates the use of teal green on cockpit interiors.  Might have to ignore that.
The plethora of extra detail is confusing.  I have two PE frets and a resin cockpit set.  However one PE fret seems to be for the styrene cockpit and one for the resin.  Or are they?  It doesn't help that part numbers on the PE don't match the destructions.
I'll figure it out.

I've also started an Airfix Fairey Battle.  It was going to be a simple OOB build but I just can't leave things alone so it's getting a two stage/two speed Merlin, improved defensive weaponry, and a bigger offensive load.  So far it looks like its going to be an all Airfix build as i've added to the box parts from their Mosquito (old mould), Blenheim (new mould) and Beaufort.  Possibly in Coastal Command scheme with prototype P's.

[NARSES2]

I've also started an Airfix Fairey Battle.  It was going to be a simple OOB build but I just can't leave things alone so it's getting a two stage/two speed Merlin, improved defensive weaponry, and a bigger offensive load.  So far it looks like its going to be an all Airfix build as i've added to the box parts from their Mosquito (old mould), Blenheim (new mould) and Beaufort.  Possibly in Coastal Command scheme with prototype P's.

So a Blenheim turret and torpedo from the Beaufort ? Always thought it's not a bad kit for it's age    I'm waiting on the new tool from Azur-Frrom (or whichever way around it is this week  ) so I can do  a real world tribute build to the Advanced Air Striking Force ones and then a SAAF one in North Africa, which will be a slight wiff.

As a much maligned aircraft, simply outdated by 1939, it still scored the RAF's first aerial victory of the war on 20/09/39 - and yes I did have to check that date 

[zenrat]

Yes, the Battle is getting the two gun turret from the Blenheim Mk 1 I fitted with a four gun Defiant item.  It fits rather well.

Got this out of the dehydrator today.
LowLux WIP 15-09-2024 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
I put tape on the purple too soon after spraying it and it's marked it.  I'm hoping to hide all that with a shabby looking finish.

[Rick Lowe]

Interesting and striking paint scheme.
Almost a shame to mess it up but like you say, as it's marred already - and according to Burt: "Do What You Can, With What You Got."

[zenrat]

Glad you like it.  I was going for late eighties/early nineties graphics.  So it'd be shabby by now anyway.

Disaster struck today (or possibly yesterday - or maybe a while ago and I only just noticed as the area in question was hidden behind the backdrop of Dadswell Field).  A collapse in one of my display cases saw a peg holding a shelf loaded with Soviet builds fall out* allowing the shelf to tip backwards and drop onto the RW(ish) 'strayan builds on the shelf below.
A Sea King lost a tail wheel, a MiG lost a MER loaded with bombs, but the only damage I couldn't quickly fix with superglue is an Airfix Boomerang which must have taken the full weight of the shelf directly from above as both UC legs are snapped into three pieces.  Surprisingly the Wirraway sitting next to it survived unscsthed.
I think I have a glue bombed Boomerang a nephew gave me so i'm hopeful that can donate its legs.  Failing that i'll fit some from something else.  I'll take the opportunity to freshen it up as the transfers are horribly yellowed.  Maybe it's a sign I should buy a new one?

Recovery and first response took up almost all of my allotted modelling time before work this morning but as I had cleared space to get at the scene of the disaster I cleared a little more and hung my Op Chastise B17 up in the big builds display area.


*It happens.  I blame micro earth tremors (or passing trucks) vibrating the pegs out.  When it does happen I glue the pegs back in place with PVA.

[PR19_Kit]

......... a MiG lost a MER loaded with bombs,

You're lucky they didn't go off, The Zenrat Mansion would have ceased to exist!