Friday, March 19, 2010

One success and some progress

I tried again to tidy up the white stripe on the P-51D wing but I only made it worse. Finally, I decided to strip the wing back to bare plastic and start again.

Here is the current state of things - I have primed the wing, sprayed the white, masked it out and given it a coat of RAF dark green so hopefully I am back where I was.






Little Wing Jicarilla Apache 1850 - Pili Pili 120mm figure.
Maybe I should stick to figures? This one has been on the go for about 9 months or so. I had some great difficulty with the beadwork. Finally, i took it to the club last month and asked for suggestions. The best one came from Brian Wakeman (of SAM magazine
fame!) who suggested that, instead of trying to do p[arallel lines, I try a simpler pattern.

My wife, who wants this on her dressing table with all the other Native Americans I have done, told me to get it finished as she was happy with it. I spent last evening tidying up the beadwork as best I could and the put the figure together.

Here is the result.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

There is always something!








Here are a couple of snaps to show where I am. remember, that this is a 357th FG in RAF Dark Green and Medium Sea Grey.

This all looks well and good, except there (as it says in theheading) is ALWAYS something!

Take a look at a blow-up of the upper wing:









I have been getting on really well with the P-51D. I even remembered to paint the wings white and mask out the stripes before I started on the main colours.

This is a very small blemish on the wing surface. I have now masked off the rest of the wing and am sanding this down in preperation for re-spraying in white.

Question
Notice where the flaps are down. I do not know if the whitestripe would have been carried down into the gap or whether theywould have just painted the top wing surface? If it is thelatter, then I need to get into the gap between the wing and theflap and paint out the white. I need some help here, please.

I expect to finish this for the club meeting next Tuesday.

Monday, March 08, 2010

I know what's wrong - I need to be interested in the subject

I have decided that there is a reason why I can't do aircraft. It's because I haven't found a subject to engage me as I used to. I have been making models because they have been just released, or some such. Having worked this out, 'he says!', I have picked a topic that I am interested in.

Background - when the 357th Fighter Group came to the UK they were based - well wait for it. Lord Haw Haw, on 30th January 1944, to show how good their intelligence was, welcomed the unit to its new headquarters at Yoxford. Now Yoxford is a little village 25 miles north of us on the A12 to Lowestoft, and has/had no airfield. The group was actually stationed at Leiston. Ever since, the group have been known as 'The Yoxford Boys'. I have wanted to make a P-51D Mustang from this group for a long time so when I got hold of some decals, I knew that the time had come. One Tamiya P-51D kit came off the shelf and now I am well into it.


"As any fule kno" (viz. Nigel Molesworth) I am always attracted to different paint schemes. Does anyone remember my P-38 Yippee or the bright red Hurricane? Well, it seems that due to the possibility of moving to France following the invasion, it was recommended that there be a move away from bare metal to a camouflage scheme. Hence, the 357th had some aircraft painted in what should have been Olive Drab and Neutral Grey7. However, as only RAF paints were available, they got painted in RAF Dark Green and Medium Sea Grey. Just the touch of interest that I needed.


Here is the cockpit - let's see if I can get much further, given that recently, with two aircraft, I only ever got that far.



Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Not much activity in February

I have recently been introduced to Stargate Atlantis. My daughter, Wendy, has lent me the whole series. I have always been a great fan of Stagate SG1 but since we dumped Sky some 5 years or so ago, and also dumped our TV 18 months ago, I have missed out on this. At 2 - 3 episodes a day, I still have a long way to go. The first problem is that because it relates back to SG1, I have to watch some of that as well, and the second is that it is my plastic modelling that is taking the back seat. I am still getting on with my N-Scale railroad (see http://www.gmrblog.co.uk) however - mainly because Valerie keeps asking me how I am doing with it. She is of the opinion that me and aircraft do not go together! Mind you, this is what was said in the latest edition of IPMS-Ipswich news -

"What did the Red Indian shout as he parachuted from the aircraft? Nothing, aviation hadn’t been invented at the Little Big Horn! Dave Pennington's Geronimo showed Dave’s exponentially increasing ability with figures; always a bonus as his aircraft always seem to end up in the bin!"

The knowledge of my inability to finish an aircraft is spreading :-(

Here is a photo of the figure he is talking about



















I have done some masking on the Catalina - the black de-icing boots but that is all the progress I have made.