Zenrat's Flying Circus

[Weaver]

Jon - Rear engined turbine car makes sense because you can route the exhaust straight out the back.  Great for preventing tailgaters.  Thanks for that.  Shame about the photos - the fact you still remember suggests you were not happy.

Jay Leno had exactly that happen with his gas-turbine-powered motorbike: woman in a car trying to get a better look at traffic lights, melted her plastic bumper...

H - It'd make a great whiff.  Scaleorama it into 1/72 and then go crazy.  Helipad or catapult on the stern for a start.
I'm intrigued by the Airfix footballers.  Anyone tried whiffing them?  What scale?

As soon as I find an accurate kit of an 1850 helicopter to go on it, I'm in...

The 'England Stars' footballers are 1/9th scale: big buggers:



There was also a set of generic 1/32nd 'Footballers' back in the day.

Finally I dug out a couple of kits to investigate an idea I had for a spy plane.  Unfortunately it wouldn't be as easy as I hoped because Skyvan wings have significantly less chord than those of a Bronco.

Well Bronco wings are constant chord, so you could just get another Bronco and cut'n'shut two pairs of wings together.

EDIT: a Dornier Do.28 also has 'plank' wings with almost the chord as the Bronco. Now the Dornier's span is only 5ft wider than the Bronco's BUT if you attach the Dornier's entire wing, from root to tip, outboard of the Bronco's boom, you pretty much double the Bronco's outboard wing span. This is particularly easy, because the Do.28's wing is, famously and gloriously, entirely free of struttage...

As for the Do.28 fuselage, do what I've been threatening to do for years: turn it into a helicopter...

As for the helicopter you nick the rotor system off: stick the Bronco's outer wings on it and call it a sci-fi 'hopper' 

[NARSES2]

The 'England Stars' footballers are 1/9th scale: big buggers:

So was Michael Owen in real life 

[jcf]

The whole FIAT 8001 for any interested.

[scooter]

Looks like a better Batmobile than the Lincoln Futura.

[zenrat]

Looks like a better Batmobile than the Lincoln Futura.

Heretic.


Phone and toplap are still not talking to each other.  I need to turn the toplap off and on again.
Today I cleaned up, mounted on sticks and primed all the Grach weaponry.
I also glued some strips of thin styrene card into the gaps produced on the upper surfaces of the Crusader wings by dropping the slats and flaps.  According to pics there should be a panel line there rather than a yawning chasm.
I then got out one of my Hasegawa US Pilots and Ground Crew sets and wondered why I was surprised that the pilot I selected fitted the seat so well.

[Weaver]

Have you got a lapdog? If so, see how that interfaces with your phone instead. You might be surprised.

[zenrat]

I tried a lapdog.  No go.  I turned it off but then the bloody thing wouldn't turn back on again.

But luckilly the phone and the toplap are now talking again.

Grach.  A RW aircraft - Armée de l'air tchadienne
Grach WIP 28-02-18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr


More painting weapons today plus I glued together the Crusaders fuselage halves and shot a coat of primer on the wings.
Apocalypse Post van is finished apart from a tub of mail to go inside.

[Old Wombat]

Cor! Looks great. Chadian markings are both different & pleasantly colourful.

[TheChronicOne]

Agreed!!!!   Chad to the bone. 

Africa and SA..... underserved in the modelling world if you query me!

[zenrat]

Chad are one of those countries who like to make things difficult when decalling - the blue has to point inwards and the red to the rear so there are two different roundel designs and you have to concentrate when applying them.  Linden Hill obviously didn't concentrate as they got it wrong and there were errata decals included in the set to correct this.  Still, good on them for doing it.  Other than that their decals work well.

[Weaver]

Nice one - it's looking good.

Since the operator is Chad, you should have a small drawing of the Chad cartoon (same as Kilroy, but the British version) on the side with the words "Wot, no reheat?" or something similar under it....

[NARSES2]

It is a very attractive scheme for sure

[zenrat]

It is nice isn't it.
Looks like the Armée de l'air Tchadienne kept them in good nick so no heavy weathering is needed.
I painted the undersides of the tanks today and put some satin clear on it.
Also satin cleared the Mystery Spitfire.

Crusader is going together well now i've finished messing with the wings.  The beauty of the pop up wing design is that it means no wing root PSR.  Yay!
The fit of the fuselage halves is pretty good although some sanding was needed behind the cockpit along with minor PSR needed in front of the vertical tail and in front of the cockpit.  Some raised detail has been lost but I can live with that.  If I couldn't I wouldn't be building the Hasegawa kit, i'd have bought an Academy.
Vought Crusader WIP 01-03-18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
I have a Hasegawa Corsair II in the stash and while building the Crusader I've been pondering building that with pop up wings.

[PR19_Kit]

I have a Hasegawa Corsair II in the stash and while building the Crusader I've been pondering building that with pop up wings.

It's always amazed me that Vought didn't do that anyway, they already had all the design and hardware ready.

[Old Wombat]

I have a Hasegawa Corsair II in the stash and while building the Crusader I've been pondering building that with pop up wings.

It's always amazed me that Vought didn't do that anyway, they already had all the design and hardware ready.

Because the SLUF was designed to be a sub-sonic ground-pounder with a different chord & camber to its wing to that of the F-8 &, therefore, didn't need the greater lift of the steeper angle of attack on approach whilst keeping the nose down to where the pilot could see the deck, perhaps?