Scotsman

To be honest the iridescent film would look a lot more realistic , I seem to remember Dave Roof aka Leathnecks used to have a film product for HUD / CRT screens , its basically confetti pieces, and that might be a way forward , Or break out the PVA!!! ColinR

Nice work , so far , but that;s a pity about the canopy, I have "fond" memories of building this one 20 or so years ago, and I vividly recall filling in the disco light framework wit PVA. waiting 4 weeks for it to dry and then tinting it with Tamiya clear red.. simpleier days! I do remember the U/C is a major PIA , well it was for me ! Oh and the Verlinden lock on book is a very decent reference - have fun!

That's how it looks to me as regards the Pylon/Launch rail size If you compare the flightpath launch rail to the wind width , its obvious its too long..

Morning people , and especially my fellow Sky Pirates, After a couple of nights in the trenches some comments might be in order , first Pylons The re-tooled master is getting close to being cast , just working out the engraving etc, BUT I had a bit of a crisis yesterday as regards the size of them. In common with a couple of outhers I'm planning to add Flightpath Sea Eagles to my Buc, so I bought a pair from the big H this week I'd built them before when I built a GR-1B tornado , and knew all about them , but when I put the Launch rail together and compared it to my Pylon - Yikes , the rail is about 4-5 mm longer - cue an evening of panic comparing my pylon to the Scaled un Huntley plan , it looked fine, and as all you Pirates know the Eagle launch rail is the same length as the pylon, So where had I gone wrong? Well as it turns out I hadn't , When compared the Buc wing , it became obvious to me at least that the launch rail is too long , by said 4-5mm - now I can't absolutely guarantee that is the case but reference of the well know pics of the 208 Sq Bucs toting 4 eagles its obvious to me that the rails do not extend the full cord of the wing, neither to the pylons, so crisis over ,I hope Casting this weekend , hopefully Chaff Flare buckets - Scratch building the flare/Chaff dispensers that go under the airbrake , yikes, a LOT more complex than it appears to be , you RN builders count yourself lucky! Air Brakes - and in particular the re-enforcing panels - I found this pic Here - is this typical of the mods applied to the later RAF Bucs, it looks more like armour plating! , I know the mod was applied as part of th1508 program, but this looks like overkill! , still might be fun to add, and I'd better stock up on Archer Rivets! So its one with the building - which me luck

Well looking at this build , its clear I have No skills!- brilliant work, I wish I had a fraction of your abilities and techniques! ColinR

what a beautiful clean build , excellent

I understand that approach , But as I said on this subject over on Britmodeller , I've been spending a lot of money buying generic markings to use with specific squadron sets, and to be honest I'm delighted to have the option to buy a comprehensive set covering all options , but I have to stress this is very personal opinion, This is based on spending something like £40-50 in decal sheets that I had to be cannibalised in order to produce one set of markings for my Camo'ed 1/32 Meteor F8 last year ! CR

And so say all the Sky Pirates!

I'll have that sheet right now please , 12 Sq please! - but having sid that , the besk know pics of Buc's with 4 Sea Eagles are of 208 SQ aircraft , but either one will do me!

That does look rather nice , now if we could just get a decent late model F-4E , that doesn't need resin .. That would be nice!

Oh as for the Pylons - yup I'll cast some sets - but be aware its a fairly amateurish setup , but I will use standard Resin , the fiberglass stuff is a a total PITA to work with , owing to the back its pretty well bulletproof Give me a couple of weeks to get the resin, sour our another mould and cast a few sets

I understand the sentiment , BUT the brakes as cast in the original fuselage halves is WAY undersized , you might want to do something I didn't think to do and that is get a hold of the airwaves 1/48th airbrake set , get a photocopier, enlarge the set to 150% - and you have a set of fairly decent patterns for the extensions - Thierry mentioned that in one of his posts , and its an excellent idea CR

As promised some more pics of my Buc build, first off the RAF Pylon master , Thierry is right as regards the lower wing profile, if you shape the pylon to match the drawings they simply won't sit correctly , the lower wing is a little too shallow , anyway after spending most of xmas working on this is the master , as I said earlier Basswoord, skinned with Plasticard, a trick I learned from a friend of mine who scratchbuids 1/600 North Sea supply boats, (don't ask) I cast a sample using Fiberglass resin, all I could get over the Xmas break Now onto the Real meat of the last month's build the S*****G airbrakes, Seriously what was I thinking, the pics here shows the result of the 3rd attempt the sort it out I use the Ian Huntley plans blows up to 32nd , and it went something like a) Cut back the rear fuselage to a point under the mid point of the rudder, then cut myself a plug to match the diameter of the fuselage, glue it in place b)Stick the brakes together , drill a hole in the middle off the inside, and a corresponding hole in the plastic disk, then insert a rod to allow the brakes to be set upo in the correct orientation c) Add upper and lower pieced to the plug and glue them in place D) Dremel out nitches in the brakes to match the engraved actuator arm covers, and then glue in plastic strip to run from the brake slot to the plug e) Add in the upper and lower covers , glue sand, fill, swear, drink heavily Yes rivet details have to added, that's what Archer is for! Next the belly! Filler, sanding, more filler more filler, repeat ad nauseum! There a fair bit of engraving to be done , but on balance I think removing the bomb bays in the fuselage castings , and fitting is that way to go and , wish I had! Another addition - a bulge in the equipment bay - seen on Martel equipped aircraft Oh did I mention its BIG Well there it is , Questions?

Interesting option , Chek , I'm not sure if I can manage the Vac forming bit , BUT 10 thou Plasticard, and a jar of boiling water from the Kettle might be just as effective Man this model is forcing me to re-discover many skills than I haven't used in years PS Update added to WIP CR

ok, ok , Look for an update in the next day or so , once A) the workbench gets cleared, and b) I clean off the 1/2" of sanding dust off the model - Unfortunately my photographic skills are way worse than my modelling skills, and I'm a terrible modeller!