Fleet Air Arm Group Build

Nice to see eveyone checking in. Feel better soon, guys!

Not much to report from the bench here either. Had 3 days off over the weekend and the wife & I spent it entertaining both my parents AND our grandkids, then back to work for 10 out of the next 11 days. My one day off in that time frame is this coming monday. I plan on making the best of it (after the beds are made, the house is vacuumed, the dishes are done, and both lawns are cut).

Hi crew!

Today was spent slaving in the secret workshop over the B-25 and my Nieuport 17. The latter is my entry for the WWI knights of the sky GB. Progress is slow, but I'm enjoying the builds.

As always, I wish you well wherever you are..........CHEERS!

Hello all my friends,

I still do not a place to build yet, in time.  I hope you all have a great weekend, I will.  Me and a fellow teacher (has a boat) are going fishing of the Florida coast   Is life good or what  

I do want to get to building soon.  There are a bunch of hobby stores in Jacksonville.  I have checked out a bunch of them.  Dream of what I would like to build.  I will try to check in more often.  The problem is that I have to do it from work and after school.

Since this is the weekend, do I still get some rum?

Do you still get some rum?

Of course you do lad!!

"What will we do with a drunken teacher?"

"What will we do with a drunken teacher?"

"What will we do with a drun-ken tea-cheeerrr!-Ear-ly in the morn'in!"

TANGO 1 wrote:

Do you still get some rum? Of course you do lad!!   "What will we do with a drunken teacher?" "What will we do with a drunken teacher?" "What will we do with a drun-ken tea-cheeerrr!-Ear-ly in the morn'in!"

Oh-oh, the cap'n be drinkin all the rum! 

Cheers everyone, hope the weekend is enjoyed by all!  And Roy, sounds like you have QUITE the weekend plans!  Fishing off the coast of Florida, I wish I were there with ya! Glad to hear things are good there, and I hope you get some bench time soon!  Till then mate, cheers!

Now, where were we?  Oh, yes...

"What will we do with a drunken teacher?"

"What will we do with a drunken teacher?"

"What will we do with a drun-ken tea-cheeerrr!-Ear-ly in the morn'in!"

OFF TOPIC ALERT!!

As some of you know, I am taking a summer break from FAA builds and have begun work on a 1/48 B-25.........its certainly a challenge for me and its making me work. I'm building purely for fun so no superdetailing here.....not that its needed, the kit is a gem OOB.

Well, I've posted over on the Aircraft forum, but thought I would share my building adventure here with my pals at FAA GB HQ. Feel free to point and laugh..........

Darren-very nice work on the B-25.  Looking forward to the finished product.  Are you planning on using the kit decals or are you going aftermarket?

Speaking of aftermarket decals, the Techmod decals for the Hellcat do not want to cooperate.  After two application of Solvset, they still don't want to 'snuggle' down.  I'll take another look at the situation, but as of right now, please withdraw me from this build.  My plan is to strip the plane down and maybe repaint it as a US Navy Hellcat, using the kit decals.  However, this is a task for 'another day'.

Thanks for all the rum and keep on building!

Bob-

I'm really sorry to hear about your trouble with those decals. I've used Techmod on my Corsair and they were fine. I know you've put a lot of work into your Hellcat so it would be be a real shame not to see her finished.

Just before you start stripping, may I make a suggestion? try using a different setting solution, I used Microsol on mine and it worked pretty well-you never know, it might just work. I would give the decals a wash of warm water, let them dry then apply the Microsol. Just an idea.

In the meantime, whatever you do please keep coming back to join in the building and banter. You are "one of the lads" around here and we'd hate to lose you. With that in mind-if you have no objection, I would like to keep your name on our roll on p.1 and list your build as "Redeployed until futher notice"

Whichever markings end up on your Hellcat on "another day" I hope you will display her here so that we may drink a tot of rum in your honor.

BTW-

about the B-25? I'm using the OOB decals. This one will be in the markings of "Mitch the Witch" Its nice nose art with lots of bomb markings. Paint scheme is O/D Green over grey. I plan to have fun with the painting and weathering on this one.

Thanks Darren-one never knows-did some research this am and Aeromaster (I think) makes some nice FAA decals-I may end up striping and repainting as time allows.

Looking forward to seeing your B-25.  I'm thinking about doing the 'Dirty Dora' version, with kit provided decals and Eduard masks.  However, the masking & painting make me a bit nervous-I'm planning on waiting until I have no other projects/committments.

Bob,

Sorry to hear about your Hellcat!  I had a lot of problems with the first aircraft I tried to build here too. (Corsair)  Ended up stripping it and in the process broke the wings apart.

I really hope you are able to save those decals, another option would be Mr.MarkSofter, a little more aggresive decal solvent from Gunze available at Squadron.  I really hope that you stick around too, it really wouldn't be the same around here without you.

Bob-

I was a bit worried about all that canopy masking so I bought myself the Eduard mask set. I plan to attatch all the glass parts (except the fuslage windows-these have to be done before the fuselage halves are closed.) after I have done filling and sanding the airframe, I then attach the masks. Once they are all on I will coat them with a light spray of future. This will create a barrier between the masks edge and the canopy so that the paint (if any) does not run underneath the mask. After that its just a case of spraying the canopy frames interior colour then after that the next coat will be the airframe colour. Easy! 

OK......it is still work, it still takes time, but the result is worth it.

After a considerable time away I finally have some advancement on the Barracuda and Firefly - the Decals are finally on the models!!! The surprising part was that the Barracuda markings went on buetifully and snuggled down well while the Firefly markings didn't realy want to go into the panel lines.

Both look good from here Dave.

Regards,  Rick

ALERT!

Sorry to jump a bit OT, but I wanted to share my excitement!  My Zero was featured over on ARC today, and since it WAS an adversary to the FAA (), I thought I might post it.  Rum all 'round!  Cheers everyone!

"NOW HEAR THIS............"

Lt. Daniels has been immortalised on the ARC Homepage. He has shown great skill and bravery by defeating hostile plastic to produce a masterpeice of modelling.  In honour of this event we salute him in our traditional way...........

(HATS OFF!) 

WHOO-HOOOOO!!!! YEAH! 

(HATS ON!) 

"SALUTE!!"

"Detail....... Disss.........MISSED!!! 

" For he's  a jolly good fellow......."

          "For he's a jolly good fellow........"

           "For he's  a jolly good felloooooowwwww.................

"Now lets drink lots of RUM........Now lets drink lots of RUM......Now lets drink lots of RUM..............

CHEERS Frank!

You're welcome!

Cheers!

Since this is a Fleet Air Arm GB I thought you might be interested in this. One of the Royal Navy's most famous squadrons No.800 NAS, are back in action over the skies of Afganistan. The squadron had been disbanded a while back by the MOD and the Sea Harrier FA.2's were put into storage awaiting export sale. It was sad day to say the least.

However, they are back! Now flying the Harrier GR.7, they have done a work up criuse aboard the carrier HMS Illustrious and they have established a base in Kandaha. Here are some recent photo's from the squadron's deployment  in Afganistan:

Ok, just a quick Seafire update.  A day off of work today divided between time in the shop and a little motorcycle excursion- perfect!

I sanded down a couple of problem areas revealed by the primer coat, and re-scribed a couple of panel lines.  On the wingtip lights, the kit parts did not fit very well (they are MUCH thicker thatn the wing) so I glued them on and then sanded them to match the wing.  Doing so removed all of the panel and rivet detail, so I re-scribed the lines and shot a last coat of primer on.  I think she is about ready for paint!  I still have to trim the vacuum form sliding canopy section, and mask off the canopy pieces.  More to come soon!

Looks like good progress Frank.

Regards,  Rick

Nice work Frank.

You've done a heck of a lot of work on this one and it shows I can see you dealt with those wings very well, I was just wondering if you were going to drop the elevators or not? I know its more work, but it really does make the model look more "lifelike". 

Just an idea.