Martin Monterey MR1

[PR19_Kit]

He has sailed past madder and is well on his way to maddest, which is to be admired

Isn't that a shade of red ? 

After sanding all those blasted air bags, that'd describe my colour exactly! 

[NARSES2]

It'll be worth it Kit. (Said in the type of voice doctors use when talking to patients  ) 

[Old Wombat]

It'll be worth it Kit. (Said in the type of voice doctors use when talking to patients  ) 

The "caring, encouraging" type or the "suck it up, princess" type?

[NARSES2]

It'll be worth it Kit. (Said in the type of voice doctors use when talking to patients  ) 

The "caring, encouraging" type or the "suck it up, princess" type?

The sounding "caring, encouraging" type when they are really thinking "oh not this one again" 

[PR19_Kit]

It'll be worth it Kit. (Said in the type of voice doctors use when talking to patients  ) 

The "caring, encouraging" type or the "suck it up, princess" type?

The sounding "caring, encouraging" type when they are really thinking "oh not this one again" 

I'm encouraged by your attitude Chris, thanks. 

I tried to do some more work on the weapons loading platform but found some of my pre-cut parts wouldn't fit, despite them being made to scale from my true scaled drawings.

Digging further revealed that I'd screwed up the first assembly, and it's not fixable, so I'll have to scrap it and start over. I'm not too worried, it never looked right to me, and it wasn't! 

[PR19_Kit]

I've now got two coats of RAF Blue/Grey over most of the beaching trolley, and it's looking rather strange in a totally different colour, but we'll see how it goes when I add the detail colours.

I've also finished the cockpit colours so it's full speed ahead on fitting the canopy. That's not too easy as it wasn't meant for this kit anyway, but some styrene sheet and LOTS of putty should do it.

I've not even thought about doing a new weapon loading platform yet, it'll need some sort of radical structure to enable it to be strong enough, now that I know the correct shape of the thing. 

[PR19_Kit]

Amongst all the other odds and ends that I'm trying to do on this model, fitting the canopy is one of the more tricky ones. Even though the Anigrand canopy wasn't meant to fit the Mach 2 fuselage in the first place, the mating surfaces at the sides and back fit almost perfectly, but the forward end and the forward curved corners don't fit at all, leaving large gaps to fill.

I've devised a system of bedding the canopy's forward edges into a 'platform' of putty, with a small piece of polythene sheet in between to stop the putty sticking to the canopy. Amazingly it seems to work quite well, and I'm waiting for the second lot of putty to dry off now, and I'm hopeful that it will be all that's needed, after some precision sanding and filing of course.

[TheChronicOne]

Good thinking!!! I'll have to remember that lil trick. 

[Old Wombat]

Good thinking, 99!

[zenrat]

Good thinking, 99!

He's not just a pretty face is he?

You won't know what to do with yourself Kit when you finish this and crack open a new model that fits properly.

[PR19_Kit]

Good thinking, 99!

He's not just a pretty face is he?

You won't know what to do with yourself Kit when you finish this and crack open a new model that fits properly.

ARE there any models that fit properly? 

Oh yes, all the new Airfix stuff, I'll make sure I do one of them next for sure.

[The Wooksta!]

An Airfix Spitfire PR19 should help nicely.

[PR19_Kit]

You might think that I've been swinging the lead on the Monterey the last few days due to the lack of reports. Well to a certain extent I have been, but I've been pratting about doing all sorts of small jobs, like re-attaching the MAD probe, this time with a piano wire core so it won't break again!

Then I've re-cut and attached the forward ECM aerial on the fin fairing, but mainly I've been waiting for the putty to go hard under the canopy front end. There's four layers on there and it's taken for EVER to harden off, but it's OK tonight and I've filed and sanded it to shape, and painted it all matt black.

I've also added a couple of doo-dahs to the canopy and hopefully I'll be able to glue it in place late tonight or tomorrow.

The trolley has had some detail painting done, but there's a lot needed and I have to wait for one colour to dry before I can start another.

Such is modelling life......

[Dizzyfugu]

How is PSR going on? 

[PR19_Kit]

How is PSR going on? 

Most of it's done, but I expect some more areas will appear once I've got the next primer coats on.

I'll have to recut come of the panel lines too, which are usual Mach 2 mix of perfection to non-existence.