Thursday, June 21, 2012

As if I need some new projects?

My friend Ken Withey has sent me two Czech Master Resin kits free - gratis - etc. Very kind of him to arrange it with the guys in Czech. One, I am looking forward to - the DH. Sea Venom. I am NOT looking forward to the Bristol Sycamore - thin rotor blades and a very big vac-form canopy - gulp!


The project I am just about to start - even though I have two already on the go and never acted like this before is the following:


There is a good, sensible reason for this. We have just laid a new laminate floor in the kitchen and I am under pain of death if I drop any paint or over-spray. I can spend a good few weeks just putting this together so I can't cause any damage until SWMBO has forgotten about the new floor - sneaky smile. This kit has loads of parts (unlike the 1/12th Mustang). It even has 3D moulded fully working suspension springs! Slide moulding is a very clever thing. W.I.P photos as I go - as I now have a working camera again! (See previous Blog entry - HERE )

Back to Modelling

Well, what have I been doing during this time?

Two projects on the go but going very slowly. I seem to spend a lot of time reading Alexander Kent 'Bolitho' books instead!

Revel 1/12the scale Mustang 500.
Moving on. Here are the photos.

Firstly all of chrome parts have been stripped and re-done with Alclad Chrome.

The engine is complete and is also painted with Alclad in various shades plus some gloss black.
 Here is the complete engine ready for the chassis
 I have only given the floor pan a coat of Vallejo black primer and haven't touched the body shell yet. The spoon is in the picture to give some scale!

Alley Cat Gannet AEW3

It has been painted and decalled. I have also painted the undercarriage etc. but not fitted these parts yet. The decals are for an AEW3 flown by my Air Scout firend John Sillett.


Cor Blimey! I am back - just!

Well, it is tricky to keep a modelling blog going when you don't have a camera and you aren't doing much modelling!
  • Camera first: This is how it goes...
  • Christmas 2011.1 - Get new flash gun
  • Christmas 2011.2 - find out that the flash head on the camera doesn't work (due to me dropping it some time earlier)
  • Christmas 2011.3 - find a web site that tells me how to fix it with a piece of paper clip - which works, sort of.
  • March 2012.1 The flash gun stops working
  • March 2012.2 Send the camera off for repair
  • March 2012.3 Pay £90 and get back a camera with a new flash head
  • March 2012.4 Find out that the flash gun still doesn't work - the repairers prove that Canon flash guns do!
  • March 2012.5 Try my flash on daughter's Canon 500D (same as mine) and it doesn't work - try it on neighbours Canon 350D - it works! Do the only thing possible - sell it on EBay (explaining the situation)
  • March 2012.6 Buy new £200 Canon flash gun after wife warns me not to be stupid and buy another 'cheap Chinese' one. Now have working system.
  • May 2012.1 Camera stops taking photos.
  • May 2012.2 Send it back to repairers who are quite happy to treat it as a warranty repair - hence FREE - Hooray!
  • May 2012.3 Repairer tells me that the camera works fine for them but error log inside the camera tells of lens errors!
  • June 2012.1 Find out that camera cannot take photos usng Auto Focus - but can on Manual Focus - Guess what - the lens doesn't have a manual focus ring!
  • June 2012.2 Buy new lens - can't just replace at £85 - that would be too easy and I would miss an opportunity for an upgrade. Buy new Tamron 18 - 200  miles better than an 18 - 55 obviously.
  • June 2012.3 Realise that the lens has a 62mm filter screw and I only have a 58mm UV filter so I buy a 62mm Hoya UV filter
  • June 2012.4 Did i mention that I lost the fittings to the strap when taking it off the camera to send it to the repairers. So I now investigate a new strap - must improve on the old so buy a Sun Sniper strap - best there is.

  • Opening position - Camera 2 years old and worth maybe £250 on EBay with lens worth £30 as a working lens plus a Chinese flash - value around £40.
  • Closing position - Camera still worth £250 - £200 flash gun - £150 lens, £18 filter and £40 strap oh and a £90 repair- total £748. I could have sold the camera and bought the latest 600D and a flash gun for less!