LSP_Kevin

Only a couple of weeks after his 100th birthday, legendary box art artist Roy has reported passed away today. I can't find anything more definitive than a Facebook post from another artist, but I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the report. For those of you who aren't aware, Roy Cross did much of the iconic box art for Airfix that many of us grew up with and were inspired by. Post your favourite Roy Cross box art below. Here's one of mine: Blue skies, Roy. Kev

Just wanted to chime in and say that this is an officially endorsed endeavour that Tim has put a lot of time into, so grab one while you can! Kev

That's gorgeous, Damian! Great photography, too. Kev

Excellent work, Mal. Welcome back! Kev

Lovely work as always, Tolga! Kev

Yeah, they weren't fun! I did manage to get the together, though, and they're just awaiting painting now. Kev

Just make sure you get it from Copper State Models, though! Kev

One thing I noticed with the fin is that I've managed to round off the top of the trailing edge slightly, so I'll take care of that next. In the meantime, a couple of photos of the engines that I forgot to post in the previous update. Firstly, work continues on the nacelles/cowlings, and as you can see, things aren't quite blended in yet: Getting there, though. Worse are the pylon assemblies. I realised after gluing the resin outlet cones to the vac plastic that the whole arrangement didn't resemble the real thing in the slightest, with the base of the resin cones being far too large for the plastic. I've started the process of blending them in: As you can see in the photo above, there's still a dramatic curve along the bottom that needs to be address, so it'll be out with the Milliput again! I have a pair of Minicraft 777 kits in the stash also, one of which will be converted to a -300 using the Bra.Z conversion parts. But the other will be a -200 like this one, and I intend to build it in tandem with this one once it's rotated back to the front of the build queue - just like I did with the 757 kits. Kev

Yeah, this is the only method I use. I was advised to do so many years ago by a guy I bought a Falcon Beaufighter from, and I've stuck with it ever since. I don't even have room to tape large sheets of sanding material to my bench, even if I wanted to! It's given as standard advice when building vacs, but it never made sense to me. Kev

I know I said I was going to stop working on this one, but I've still got quite a head of steam built up for it, so until that dissipates, I'll keep plugging away and posting updates. Speaking of which, here's the current state of the fuselage: That top seam is proving quite a challenge to make even and lump-free. Still a way to go, I think. I'm still dealing with the window recesses, too. I know the stubby little spar for the wings looks a bit useless - and it probably will be as far as that is concerned - but I decided to install it anyway to help provide some additional structural strength for the fuselage at that point, as it's mid-way between two bulkheads, and there's otherwise quite a bit of flex in that area. Not ideal for a wing root! But before I get to the wings (and tailplanes, for that matter), I need to deal with the vertical fin, which is obviously separate on this kit. No matter how much I sanded the two halves, I couldn't get a satisfactorily thin trailing edge happening, so I decided to glue them together and take a different approach. This involves gluing a suitable size of styrene rod along the trailing edge, like so: Once the bond is strong enough, I then back-fill the join with a mix of CA and talc, and sand it back when cured. While doing this, I also use the width of the styrene rod to develop a sharp taper that produces a much more convincing trailing edge. I didn't bother trying to get a photo of the finished result, as I knew it just wasn't going to show up on camera. After checking the joins with some brushed-on Mr. Surfacer 500, I glued in a length of brass tubing to act as a mounting pin, and the packed out the rest of the gap at the bottom with styrene and CA: It's not a great fit at this stage, but at least the join should be solid: Once I'm happy with the seams and window recesses on the fuselage, I'll set about getting the attached and blended in. At about that point I'm sure I'll have had enough! Kev

Silver bits finally done! Still a long way to go, however. Next step is to mask off all the non-white areas, and give the fuselage and fin their final coats of white. I also need to finish painting the engines and installing them, along with the landing gear and doors - but not before decals! I can at least see the finish line from here, so as long as I don't screw up any of these remaining tasks too badly, it should make it. Stay tuned! Kev

Very nice work, John! Kev

Nice progress, Håkan! Kev

Great stuff, Derek! Kev

There were two kit family assignments, but one was empty, so I removed it. This shouldn't really prevent the page from loading, so it's yet another bug I'll need to fix! Kev