I remember that one Jessie, nice job. I built the Schools and City of Truro from the Airfix range from years ago, neither is a great model, but that is not Airfix's fault. Both are static, wouldn't mind having a go at another loco.

Easter weekend... had kind of forgotten about that; though have some plans later on, Friday seems free at the moment, so I think I might manage to get this finished and even have a bash at a seascape. Have a fresh pack of Das modelling clay.

So, with everything attached, I was telling my daughter about how my older brother's ship kits wouldn't stay in one piece for long due to all those little bits sticking out here and there. Here it is complete in plastic:



...and here primed white with the bow flag pole (or whatever the technical name is) snapped off. I took the specs off to get a clearer view while spraying in the garage and so couldn't see properly when I went to pick it up - snap. Couldn't find the part again either. Tch.



Planning to go to Chatham Dockyard open day over weekend and they have an Airfix kids' do going on, with free admission to the Dockyard for children that enter their model competition. There's two classes only: 1/32 car kits - I'm betting they'll almost all be "Minis" (so called) and the other is Cutty Sark or HMS Victory - that's it, just those two. So having helped a little with getting it to this stage, one of them reckons she's going to do the seascape and get it painted on Friday while I'm doing HMS Daring. I've heard this kind of thing before, and will believe it when I see it.


By the way, there's no adult classes in the modelling comp, so don't get any ideas!

PS, it is great to see some of these models that only ever existed as paintings in the well-thumbed catalogue. Brent, the turntable is great looking, nice paint job on the metal work. Murdo, I'd forgotten that I had that Gazelle kit, and somewhat disappointingly recall that I had it almost finished and mostly painted in green and black camo. I think just the rotors and glazing needed adding, but for some reason it never happened... wonder where it got to?
And the Vostok... that is cool. Always thought it looked like it was wearing flares compared to the Saturn V. Well, it was the '70s.

These are two of four un/partially assembled kits. I may power one or both of them. There are newer releases from another manufacturer that eclipses these in detail and scale running. However the British outline railway equipment is expensive, around $125 to $200 USD for a single ready to run locomotive.

That sticky-up flag-holdy bit at the pointy end of the ship is called the Jack staff. The sticky-up flag-holdy bit at the blunt end is called the Ensign staff. They're both hardly ever mounted* when the ship is at sea (perhaps one or two ceremonial days out of the whole year), so don't concern yourself with them; they shouldn't be there if you're displaying your ship at sea. The Jack is only flown in port, and the Ensign is flown from the mast while the ship is at sea.

Here endeth your Naval Protocol lesson from a former Naval Person.

*The Jack staff and the Ensign staff are designed to be dismounted. The task of mounting or dismounting them takes an Officer or Petty Officer, about a dozen Ordinary Seamen and a hatful of foul language. They're held in place by bolts, clevis pins and brute force.

I'll keep that in mind the next time I do a ship. I generally end up snapping those off too.
A useful tip for anyone displaying a ship at sea, is to leave off all the sticky up bits (masts, antenna, turrets, rigging etc..) and then fix the ship in its seascape. Add wake and paint sea to taste. The fix all those bits on. Saves a lot of hassle and gives you a nice firm base to work on.

I've finally completed my chipmunk in BBMF markings, this was a simple but enjoyable build, I repositioned the flaps and rudder (just like I used to when I started building airfix kits!)

Here are some of the final progress shots;
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/2e390bc3b6e1eefedb1f5f9bd3bf321064cd9ff524c9dce7c0e056a163f7f2c1
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/b64f57458ae629347a1c16a65cf249062e56552c8913be6eee4fb09b9d2c3a03
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/50af19be068cbf5c9ffc0359fa37c0dc5be598d876020aa511da963c1cc47e9b

Then some paint,
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/6abc57c162d25399857dcce971cadff56a7806b5f64b134ad70b986f90faf2d2
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/e146888a14a4fa63f70a569c0ee6f646987249d67fa13958a0d0e884b264d905

And finally decaled and varnished,
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/f221fb8690822efd93d21142eb0fd7f507e794c088a0e05783862f7c0c59ced9
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/ee9ece1a6dfe313ccce5301817175e875d7bcd7f45a79dd948511919258e10af
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/20af43a93c0ba38cb90d65893ae7d7ba6a0da4de655204f767c961a1ff0a9f94
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/f4674ba35d64761288add6457ddd53b06376646d0c3b24b4f176e92af22f40a0
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/11bd79af301d75e68cbde974ffb878f97ad5a41155f989928b9a856fc2a8f1c0

I hope you like it.

For some peculiar reason the Gazelle is a strangely overlooked and bypassed helicopter, considering that it must be one of the most streamlined, stylish and aesthetically pleasing Woccas out there.

There is a mythical 1/48 version (Heller?) that appears (extremely rarely) on Ebay. I'm amazed that kit manufacturers haven't released them in larger scales and new tooling.

It's a lovely wee (and record breaking) heli. Yet, apart from the Airfix 1/72 it is seldom seen in a decent kit format.

Very strange.

Richard, that looks very nice. Can you put up a picture of just the model against a plain background so that Alan has something nice to use for the inevitable feature?

Murdo, that Heller Gazelle was in 1/50 and was less detailed than the Airfix kit. It wasn't one of Heller's more spectacular kits. We definitely need a good 1/48 kit made to modern standards.

I see there is a Fujimi 1/48 version too, one just went on Ebay UK last month, for £33.

BTW, is it just me, or is this thread going a bit "funny" - I keep getting no posts, just the top and bottom of the page; and on page one the first posts seem to be missing.

I get that regularly across the site, I'm not sure it isn't my browser, I normally use Chrome or Firefox but I had IE on the other week and it seemed better. Btw Chrome for Android doesn't like your banner

Will do.

Photo's against a plain background sorted;

http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/309f4e3f0fee5a317d2ed04803a40227f54e8a848e90ce7e2b69c1f7e70fae66
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/b7a5bb7525806d6775f3cb790b31e426ff65e8fd0c74008e7cb82352edb98146
http://smile.webshots.com/smiles/a84161148e86d0e60bc9295355d37fd37e938d59b2e69cb5aaa60f77ad43c270

I hope this helps,

Rich

The black RAF training scheme looks quite impressive on the Chipmunk.

Jessica, while I do believe you when you say this, all of the photos I managed to find of the real Daring, without fail had both of these sticks up - I suppose because the photos tend to be taken when entering harbour so perhaps that's an occasion for putting the flags out. Anyway, relieved, and promptly removed the one at the other end.

So the Friday holiday has turned out to be a modelling day. Started with some red oxide aerosol below the water line:

Then having found a suitable photo of a sister ship, HMS Diamond, powering along, I cut a ship shaped hole in a thick piece of styrene sheet and rolled out some Das clay over it, cut another ship shaped hole in the clay and added some waves:


Seems to take a while to set, a long time since I used this material, so I started painting. Deck seemed like it should be green with a bit up the front (and possibly elsewhere) in red, so made a bit of a blotchy mess of that with some thinned enamel. Plan was not to paint the hull and superstructure grey at all but just tint the white with some AK filter for Panzer grey tanks. Had never used that before so a bit of a gamble; not sure it turned out that well as the colour surprised me by being greeny-blue, a bit like the green deck in fact.

So it's all looking terribly un-naval, like it's been through the Eastern Front sheep-dip... will do decals and some washes tomorrow and hopefully paint the sea.

Yes, exactly so. We had to have ours in place before we crossed the boundary between the harbour and the ocean. Not so bad when we were at home in Esquimalt, but it could be an adventure elsewhere. I had to stand at ease behind our Jackstaff all the way into Auckland Harour, and since it was a ceremonial visit, I had to be wearing my No.3 Dress uniform rather than my weather jacket. They almost had to carry me off the Fo'castle because I was so cold.

Here's HMCS Restigouche at sea with the staffs down and here's HMCS Mackenzie in San Diego harbour with the staffs mounted. The Junior Officer all in white is standing where I was in Auckland. He's lucky this picture was taken in the summertime.

The Brewster nears completion, Just need to shoot the last colour on the prop, let it dry a bit and do final assembly. Should be done in a few hours, before tonight's deadline.

Really should have picked the simpler RAF scheme, rather than the complex & colourful USN Yellow Wings scheme.

Rich, nice work on the Chipmunk. Looking at those rivets it must have been a tricky one to decal.

Deadlines been and gone and my Orion still has no paint, thanks to having to waste my weekend doing less constructive things and end up nearly £100 out of pocket with nothing to show for it. I did treat myself to a rather nice Eduard Dual Combi Nieuport set but got a moaning at for it. Anyway, going off topic a little there. I'm hoping to get some done this week so I'l keep everyone posted.

Well, better news with Daring:, the decals are on, although they cracked a bit and are quite yellow, they look OK. Seascape is painted; blotchy deck and h ull tidied a bit. So essentially it is done . Will post photos when back on the real computer. I made the deadline!

And the F2A-1 is done.


Airfix Brewster F2A-1 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr


Airfix Brewster F2A-1 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr


Airfix Brewster F2A-1 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

Not a bad little kit, but the decals were horrid.

I'm glad you picked the yellow wings scheme; it looks fantastic!

All, great modeling. I'm amazed at the output during this campaign.

I've gone through the gallery and awarded ribbons. If I've missed you, let me know and get a couple pictures of your model into the gallery so that Allen can put your model into our end-of-campaign feature

Congratulations to all our finishers. 35 models were started for this campaign and 32 of them were finished by the official deadline. I think that this is the largest ratio of finishers to starters that I've seen in any campaign yet. (No Robert, I'm not counting your Mercedes, which suffered a cruel demise at the hands of fate. You were well on your way to finishing so you don't deserve to be mentioned in the unfinished category.)

I'll leave the thread open for a bit so our stragglers can get their kits done

Thank you Jessica for a great campaign with a good turn out!
I found a Boston by US-Aifix in my stash (1963 mold date)I will save for the next Airfix campaign!.
Thank's again.

Great campaign Jessica.

Can't wait for the next one!

Regards
Martin