Thanks guys!

I'm not that worried about the deadline at this point. I just want to keep pushing and get her finished.

I was away for sometime and upon my return I find this GB on fire!!! I am admiring all the latest posts, magnificent builds guys!

I spent the limited time available on kit construction (or destruction, at some points), thus I managed to complete the little Spit.

Below the first set of photos taken in a kind of rush. Tomorrow I will try to be a better photographer.

And inside the small diorama

A couple of more photos with a neater background (no toothpics and cutters).

The scene is set in Takoradi, Ghana, early 1943. A ferry pilot is briefed by a Ghanaian ground technician about the last few repairs and fine tuning works that the latter made just before take off.

This plane will be then flown to the front in Tunisia, where it will become the mount of Wg Cdr lan Gleed, OC of 244 Wing. Unfortunatelly commander Gleed was shot down and killed over Tunisia on April 16th, 1943, during the air battles of operation Flax (interdiction of the Axis air supply of Tunisia from Italy).

I wish to express my gratitude to our host, Bish, for the fun of participating in this GB as well as for the useful knowledge acquired regarding the historic Commonwealth of Nations.

Zvezda, that looks excellent, and the historical backdrop story explains why the aircraft looks pristine.

regards,

Jack

Hey Zvezda, that is good looking bird!  The diorama is a great addition to a well done kit.

Zvezda, nicely finished build and i like the dio. Thanks for taking part and glad you found it informative. Got the front page updated.

Gamera

Moving slow but still moving forward.

 

Looking good G.

Zvezda great build all around.. I need to make a few dio's..

Gamera moving along nicely... I like those markings!

Zvevda: Nice!!! Great job there on the Spit and the tree turned out fantastic! Love the figures too! 

And thanks guys, though I'm moving as slow as a turtle in deep mud...... 

Zvezda, great work, love the setting in Ghana, very effective.

Keep it up Cliff nearly there!

@Zvezda,

Great job on the diorama. The Spit looks fantatsic!

@Cliff, 

The decals look great. Looks like you are almost done!

Gentleman, I hope to button up the fuselage on the MiG tonight. Then I have lots of little PE pieces to add to it. Nice thing about this Eduard kit is they engineed it to not have that many seems to worry about sanding. 

Finally got the NZ 'Cat done yesterday and downloaded the pics from the camera.

This one represents a PBY flown by Flt Lt Scholes, 6 Sqn RNZAF, Halavo Bay, Soloman Islands, 1945.  "The Wandering Witch".  From what I was able to find out, she suffered a hard landing on about the 4th mission and was damaged beyond repair.

Closeup of the Witch's nose art.  Canopy not in final fit yet.

Finished walk around.

Thank you for hosting this GB Bish.  Was fun, even though I dragged it out to the bitter end.  Your choice for front page pic if putting up the completes.

That looks really nice GH, i do like the colour, and with those NZ markings its different to what we usually see these in. Thanks for taking part, i'll get the front page updated.

GH,

Your PBY is very well done. I really do like these colors, not your typical PBY colors. Great job!

Thanks guys, pales against the other builds going on

GH, a very nice and bold looking finish to your Catalina.

The deep blue looks a lot like the one they have still  flying in New Zealand:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/78216254/world-war-ii-plane-flies-again-after-10000-hours-of-volunteer-work

regards,

Jack

GH: Wow, fine looking work there!!! I picked up a set of decals for 'The Wandering Witch' over a year ago for the Eye in the Sky GB and then noticed I keep joining GBs and never finishing them so I stayed out of that one. Hope when I finally get around to building her mine looks half as good as yours! 

GH that looks great bud. Well done! 

Beautiful Catalina !!

Thanks gentlemen.

Gamera, the sheet has one witch in blue and one in red...from what I read the blue one is correct and only on the starboard side.

I think they were restoring and painting or have done so, for one in her markings

Thanks GH, I'll have to put a note in with the decal sheet. I still haven't bought the kit for them yet. 

Got the flares done, but along the way the struts began breaking on me, until all but one remained in place.  The inner ones was able to super glue back to the fuselage sides, but the outer V-shaped ones will have to be rebuilt. 

First step is to obtain a proper length with the brass rods.  I've left a portion of the original struts as a base on the bottom wings - inserted are 0.2mm steel wire to accept the brass rods. 

Next step will be to flesh out the struts with some plastic sheet on either sides to capture their original flared look.  Oh, and I also rebuilt the oiler cooler, the Matchbox piece was a bit small.

regards,
Jack

Absolute masterful work, Jack! I'm in awe! And I'm going to dig out my thesaurus, because I'm running out of good adjectives to describe your amazing creativity. 

Looks great Jack, love the scratchbuilt oil cooler and the flares! 

hogfanfs

Absolute masterful work, Jack! I'm in awe! And I'm going to dig out my thesaurus, because I'm running out of good adjectives to describe your amazing creativity. 

 

tempestjohnny

Bish is it possible to get a one week extension? I was just able to dig the Typhoon out after this move. I should have it painted by the end of the weekend. Thanks

 

No need mate, your in before the end of the GB, so your more than welcome to crack on with it. As always, any entries are welcome to be posted after the close date.

Thank you Bruce, Cliff, and Tj.
If things go good, once the struts are properly sorted out, the only thing left will be the engine.

regards,
Jack

Sorry for being a couple of days late. But thank you to everyone who has taken part, once again some great loking builds. And remember, if your name is on the list, feel free to keep posting your builds, started or not, and look forward to seeing a few more adde to the completed pile.

I finally got the fuselage together

However, I had an issue at the bottom near the front landing gear pit. I thought I had dry fitted everything, but in my haste, I did not test the cockpit tub. And ened up with a nasty gap.

With a little bit of persuasion, I was able to get the gap down in size.

Then proceeded to fill the gap with PPP

I'll post the completed gap fix in the next couple days.

More to come.