2016 OTS (1/72) SMALL IS BIG

Thanks for the compliments guys! I appreciate it very much. Looking forward to the rest of these models being done too!

Sim,

The Pip is looking mighty fine !

And Yeah - you were right about the Spit's prop blade being off.  Didn't notice it till I read your post.  I don't know what was going on when I built the Spitty, but I had a bad case of fumble fingers.  I dropped it from where i was sitting at least 3 times during the build.  Every time, I picked it up and was amazed that some of the prickly parts hadn't snapped off.  The blade was just a little bent - so I bent it back without any hassle.

Funny thing about your "holding ring" for the Pip's prop shaft . . .  Reminds me of a joke I heard about a bomb diffuser who was having instructions read to him as he was working . . .  "Clip the red wire . . .   <!clip!> ,    uh,   . . .   after you've clipped the yellow wire".     A key part of instruction writing is "order of operations".

I ran into a kinda similar issue with the Airfix Blenheim Mk IV that I worked on last year.  There were four different choices for cowling vents in steps 39 and 40.  Flared or unflared, notched or un-notched.  There was no indication that the choice was related to any other parts . . until you realize that if you want to install the optional parts in steps 52 and 53 - you had to have chosen one of the two notched options earlier.   (I probably even sorta "read through the entire instructions thoroughly before beginning assembly."   Or maybe it was more like "skim through the instructions and check out the cool detail."  Anyway - the relationship between step 40 and 52 didn't exactly pop out as I was looking.)  I wound up notching the cowlings with an exacto.   DOH !

Duke,  The tractor, trailer, and V2 are a very nice trio.  Nicely done on those very unique subjects.  I've never seen a kit of the tractor and trailer before.  The trailer is impressively detailed.

Steve, The water base is amazing.

Tony,  Looking good so far man - looking forward to seeing what scheme you've picked out.

So I made my choice for what's next.  My Harrier GR. 1 is so close to being finished that I thought I'd kick it over the edge.  This kit was started a few months ago (Oct/Nov ?)

When you last saw her - she didn't have any legs.  Last night and this morning I worked on the landing gear.  It took quite a while with all the different colors that are used on the gear. (Dark Ghost Grey/Dark Green/Olive Drab/Silver/Black Rubber).

Here's where she "stands" now . . .   not many parts left.

Ahh - the external tanks were not present for this photo.

This is a very nicely detailed kit.  There are a LOT of parts and a LOT of decals.  The surface detail is very nice in my opinion.  I've heard some complain about the recessed panel lines being too deep.  These are just as I prefer them.  They take a wash nicely.  The decals are very good.  They settle down well into the panel lines, and they were nicely in register.  Top notch !

But with this beautiful weather - I can't stay in all day.

Keep up the good work !

Chris

Don't see a lot of Harriers in here Chris, nice job. I agree with you about the panel lines, Airfix's are a little deep but that makes them easier for a wash.

Thanks Steve,

Yeah - I don't see many Harriers either.  I like making kindof off-the-beaten-path aircraft (sounds weird coming from a guy who just finished a Spitfire).  The Harrier is a really cool A/C.  I saw one at an airshow a few years back and I tell ya - it was incredible !  A VERY loud, very impressive A/C.  Sooner of later I'd like to model a USMC version.  I guess I never realized it until making this model, but they are alot smaller than I thought.  The wingspan is smaller than the Spitfire !  And the Spitty's a small plane !

I've got some other not-so common A/C is my "to-build" stash . . .   a Westland Lysander, a Fairey Gannet, a Bristol Blenheim Mk. 1 . . .  some pretty ugly airframes - but really cool in their own way.  But first - I've gotta finish off some of the kits I've started.

Chris

I really like that Harrier. I agree on the Harrier, I built an FRS 1 for the Falklands GB a while ago, but I have a few more that I'd like to build, including one like yours. I think I'll start with the three schemes used in the Falklands first though. I think a Spanish Matador would be interesting too.

Cheers

Tony

Latest update on the Hunter, next up is to finish the cockpit and canopy and mask up for extra dark sea grey on the upper surfaces.

Cheers

Tony

Richie, good to see you too!  Nice work on the SM.81!

Bossman, the Harrier looks great.  I picked one of those up at our local show yesterday.

Tony, the Hunter is coming along nicely.

A quick update on the Hummer.  The troop area is now complete and painted, the body is now painted, and the wheels are now on the ground. Now I need to figure out how to replace the gun mount I broke putting the basket in the truck.

Thanks guys! Really looking forward to see all the builds on here come to life!

Chris that is a great looking lil Harrier! Had the Matchbox one back in the '80s, went together like a dream as most Matchbox kits did.

Tony shes looking good mate! Raspberry Ripple scheme would look good too lol.

Well, I have the wings and front engine mount on. As you can see from the pic there is a pronounced gap at the root. Thats my own fault, I started to glue the first wing on but put glue on the wrong side of the fuse! Panicing and not knowing if this glue drying would make fit issues later, I had to quickly put both wings on before this glue setup. In doing so now am faced with a decent sized cleanup job filling and sanding. In looking now I probably could have eliminated most of the gap if I had been paying a little more attention to what I was doing.

On the MIL-J-TAM paint jacks

I do things like that too Simpilot. I'll sure you'll make it good.

I have a raspberry ripple Hunter in mind for a future project, but there is a few more Hunters ahead of it in my queue. The next one will be a 'Blue Diamonds' F6.

Cheers

Tony

Ooohh Blue Diamonds?! Look forward to seeing that one too!!

Simpilot, that doesn't look half bad. You shouldn't have any problem getting that fixed up well. Looking good!

Thanks Duke! Yeah, I bought some Tamiya White Putty and also have some tube Bondo, plus all the other stuff that will eventually get the job done lol.

MC she's looking great! The paint scheme with that base is aesome, can't wait to see it finished!!

Well, had a lil time at the bench last night, while watching telly, decided to press on with the Sopwith, got the rest of the fuse decals on, Still not happy with the left side but this is one of those kits that you just gotta "Let it go" and keep it fun. Put the legs on and rigged, wheels next then more rigging. Then erection of the top wing. Here's a not so good pic that shows the legs rigged.

LOL had a couple and spent about 15 min trying to thread one of them through the wrong hole. Had to chuckle, pull it out put in right hole then glue. Nice new blade in the handle, pulled it tight, lightly ran the blade across and the end snapped back into the hole. Dab of filler, glue, or whatever and voila.

Oh, what the heck, I'll bite. I have an RB Models 1/72 Fokker D. XXIII that I picked up a week or two ago. Should be a quick one.

-BD-

Great BD , Wayne will get up on the roster when he can.

Hey Brandon, I had to google it to see what a Fokker D.XXIII was. Twin boom, push-pull, very interesting aircraft. I'm looking forward to it.

Cheers

Tony

BD looking forward to the Fok. D.XXIII!

Discovered during some more photo research that there was a wire missing in the middle of the gear. So added that then got her up on her feet. Also discovered I was short on flying wire attachment points so added them as well. Now going to put all the flying and landing wires in their places on the lower wing area, add the aileron connection wire points too. Then, finally look at mating the top wing

OH, thought I had put this pic up! The tail feathers rigged too!

i'm back from vacation and getting caught up with getting back from vacation. i will get this caught up over the weekend. 

nice work everyone. looks like with all these planes i need to build a vehicle. too bad my study and the bunker are a wreck. will just have to carve out some space. i have a week and then i actually work ten 11 hour days for election primary.

so i could do a german G-4 staff car but have the same one in 1/35 and alwasy wanted to do a side by side with photos. then again i could do that with a UH-60 helo, german BR-52 and 86 locomotive and BdW MAN 6x6.

or i could just do the JGSDF PATRIOT. btw ModelCollect has some really cool OTS modern russian stuff.

Well, I had grand plans of using my work computer to move the pics from photobucket to here.  However, when I went to upload the pics from my phone to Photobucket, there were no pics.  Very unhappy.  Wayne, could you add an Academy 1/72 P-51B in Old Crow markings.

Good work on the rigging Simpilot, it's difficult in this scale.

Good to have you back Wayne, hope it was a good one.

I sprayed the extra dark sea grey on my Hunter, it's still all masked up.

Cheers

Tony

Thanks Tony! Yeah it can be challenging lol. The Hunter is looking good!!

Got the top deck on finally. Thought I had posted this but I see I didn't. Got therigging on the bottom bits ready. Whilst fidling with the top wing allignment, one of the cabanes came lose, so I held it in place and touched the liquid cement brush to it and darn if the stuff didn't find the rigging holes I drilled and capillary action took it straight to my finger on top!! So now have to gently remove a fingerprint, respray and then should be right to rig. This pic was before the lil stuff up.

Simplot, sorry about that. Man I hate that when it happsnd to me.

Wow - looks like people are chugging right along.  Some really nice work.

Tony, that ocean gray looks pretty bland right now - but I bet it will be quite the opposite with a camo sceme and the masking off.  Looks really smooth.

Lew - sounds like we have similar taste in subjects.  I built the Academy Old Crow a few years ago.  The whole series of Academy P-51's are very nicely detailed kits.  And now you can see what the Harrier is like for yourself !  They have several versions of the Harrier.  Did you buy the GR.1 ?   (Brace yourself for some marathon decaling sessions !)

Sim - Both the Sopwith and the Pip look better with every post.  I had a little capillary action fingerprint mess on the Harrier as well.  Liquid glue is a double edged sword.  Luckily the print wasn't deep, and it sanded out pretty well after curing.  Have you started on the Pip's engines?  Just wondering how the engine detail is on that kit.

Welcome Brandon - The Fokker 23 is a neat airframe - a lot like a Cessna O2 - but sleeker.  I don't think I've seen one modeled before.

Steve, Nice job on the Mariner.  The spinning props are very effective.  That's a great looking boat.  Cant wait to see it on the base.  I can already tell that it will look quite dynamic. 

I'm putting the finishing touches on the Harrier.  There are alot of them.  Seems like there always just one more thing I forgot.  This thing will be kinda prickly and fragile when it's done.  I already snapped and remade a pitot tube.  The canopy(posed open) seems like it will be fragile too.  Gotta make sure I get some good picks just in case I have another bout of the fumble fingers.  Should have pics up in a day or two.

Keep up the good work all.

Chris

Steve, those spinning props look much better than I imagined they could.

Man, there's a lot of good stuff going on here!

Hi all,

Here are the final shots of the Harrier.  

The canopy is posed open, and I think it was shifted back as far as I could get it, but I think it still looks as though it should open a bit more.  But . . .   I never did consult any reference photos. 

The underside is nicely detailed.  I didn't put much extra work into the gear bays.  These probably could have been more detailed and better painted if I had put the work into it earlier on in the build.  The red "lights" on the dorsal and ventral areas were molded in clear plastic.  I was thinking for a while - what do I use to make them red ?  Sharpie permanent marker to the rescue !  Transparent Red - Perfect !

All of the metal parts (exhaust vents, shields, rocket pods) were "painted" with a silver sharpie marker and then hit with various shades of light acrylic paint washes to give some color variation.

She's certainly wearing alot of "bling" (read: Decals).   

This is a last minute shot I took just to show the detail of the intake trunks and engine.  I thought it was engineered very nicely and fit together very well.

I would highly recommend this kit for those that like a highly detailed, high parts count, high decal count kit.  Not for the faint of heart.

Any words of critique are welcome and encouraged !

Thanks for looking.

Chris

Bossman, it's the GR.1.  Squadron bought a vendor room at our local contest and brought a buttload of scratch and dent stuff, and stuff that was returned for missing parts and sold them for pennies on the dollar.  I picked up the Harrier for $2.00 and a 1/32 Focus RS Rally car starter set that was missing the paint (like I really need those little paint pots) for a $1.00. Almost picked up a Panda MRAP for $5.00, but it was missing the photoetch and I decided to pass on it.  Not too worried about decals, because they're my favorite part of the model.  If you haven't built it yet, the new tool Vampire trainer is a gem of a kit, and a bit decal intensive.

Nice work on the Harrier Chris!  Hope mine comes out that nice.