tomprobert

Thank you - the etched instrument surrounds are secured with a small amount of CA glue. All the best, Tom

Ohhhhh... this looks tasty! It’ll be great seeing a rare bird such as this come together - the ‘kit’ itself looks remarkably accurate as a starting point. Is the P-51 finished? Did I miss a ‘Ready for Inspection’ post somewhere?? All the best, Tom

Evening all, Making the most of self-isolation, I've made a start on the cockpit interior. I absolutely Detest (with a capital D) making cockpits - I find it tedious enough painting kit cockpits so scratch-building them is even worse. I've been putting it off as long as possible with this build, but it's got to the stage where I can't put it off any longer. I thought I'd start with the instrument panel and get that out of the way first. I'll say now that this is far from a perfect replica of a Shackleton MkII instrument panel, but the overall effect is close enough for my liking. The initial job is to make the panel itself and this was done using plastic card. I made some basic rudder pedals beneath from more plastic strip and card. The individual panel sections - in this case the Shackleton seems to have two centre panels (lower one larger and the upper one slightly smaller) and then a panel with the primary flight instruments for each the pilot and co-pilot - were made next and offered up to the main panel for sizing. When the shapes and sizes were correct, I then set about using Airscale's excellent instrument bezel sets to start bringing the whole thing to life: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The whole panel then got a spraying of matt black, with a drybrush of dark grey to bring out some of the details: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Next was adding instrument decals - again the excellent Airscale sets to the rescue here: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr A clear gloss varnish was added to the instrument faces to represent the glass, and some light weathering added on the rudder pedals before it was fitted to the forward bulkhead: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The macro photography makes it look a lot rougher than it actually is, and I'm quite pleased with the outcome so far. Obviously lots more to do, but as I'm currently in the swing of making instrument panels and the like, I may have a go at the Flight Engineer's panel next. Stay tuned... Tom

Yes indeed. There’s the famous story of the young bucks in an F-15 challenging the old timer Lightning to a challenge of ‘first to 50,000ft’. The tale goes that the Lightning did indeed out-climb the Eagle, and when the Lightning returned to the field and pulled the drag ‘chute, there was a message to their competitors that read: “Up yours, Yanks!” What the fuel situation was is anyone’s guess, but I imagine ‘critical’ was not far off an accurate description. How much truth there is to the story is anyone’s guess, but it’s well shared on this side of the pond.

Impressive stuff - there won’t be much of the original HK plastic left at this rate! I think you’d struggle to find a more accurate rendition of an early Fort anywhere - loving this. Tom

Hi Andy, The Sunderland hasn’t been forgotten - I was doing some of the more tedious interior ribbing only a few weeks ago but progress is slow so not really worth photographing. I do tend to hop about quite a bit with my builds so who knows, next week it may be back on the bench! Thanks for this, Radders. One to keep in mind if I’m desperate for paint! Appreciated. It’s a pretty fool-proof method, Craig. As long as you have the basic shape of the elevator correct, you can’t go wrong. A walk in the park for a man of your talents... You’re very kind - it might look neat, but the bin is always full of my previous mistakes you don’t get to see! All the best, folks - stay safe. Tom

That’s interesting - I was just going to wait it out as I need a few colours from Halfords when they reopen. However, if I get desperate, I know what to do. Many thanks!

Howdy folks I hope everyone is managing to stay healthy and out of the way of this ghastly virus - I've been making the most of my time at home and have made the elevators for the big Shackleton. Scratch-building this sort of thing is really straightforward, and can be covered in the following steps: Step 1: Using scaled plans, cut yourself four elevator shapes (two left and two right) from plastic card. O.25mm is about the right thickness: IMG_1877 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 2: Again, using plans to guide me, the main panel lines are scribed on. This is done before further construction as it's far easier to scribe on to flat plastic card than when it's on the airframe: IMG_1879 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 3: Rivets are added: IMG_1883 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Pressing on to the soft cutting mat has actually left a nice oil-canning effect - bonus! IMG_1885 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 4: Using off-cuts of sprue, the leading edges of the elevators are made and attached to the hingeline: IMG_1886 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 5: Top and bottom 'skins' are then sandwiched together: IMG_1888 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 6: The leading edges and end plates are then blended with Milliput: IMG_1891 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 7: Fit your latest creations to the stabilisers: IMG_1893 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr And there we have it! Well - not quite. Still some fettling to do with the hinges and they also need priming. Unfortunately the local Halfords is closed due to the virus and I've run out of primer, so that'll have to wait. Stay safe people and thanks as ever for stopping by. Tom

I've been steadily shaping the rear end today - quite pleased with the new look and I think a big improvement over my original effort: S1030208 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I've also begun making the master mold for the plexiglass tail cone - this will be bulked out and shaped with Milliput in due course: S1030200 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Good to be making some progress on this again Take care all, Tom

Ha! Yes! Every cloud...

Glad I’m not dreaming things! And totally understand your logic regarding the extra hassle - I don’t blame you! You really have done a beautiful job and given an old kit a real modern-standard makeover. It’s a stunner. All the best, Tom

That is GORGEOUS. Following the WIP, it looks as if this fought you all the way - you can’t tell now she’s finished as it looks like a standard kit which is huge credit to your skills. I may be wrong, but I thought the longer nose Spits had more of a forward rake on the main gear legs to help address the extra weight forward. Not a criticism, just an observation and I’m curious in case my memory is playing tricks... All the best, Tom

Thanks for the warm welcome back, folks. The Sunderland has not been forgotten, fear not. I was only doing a little bit to the interior the other day - not really worth photographing but it’s still ticking along, albeit at a glacial pace. I’ve still got the 1/48th B-52 lurking around the bench too - in fact I hop around like a pea on a drum between projects so no tellings what’ll get worked on next and when! All the best, Tom

Afternoon all It's been a while since I've done anything on this long-term build, but decided to get it back out for a bit of TLC and decided to jump straight back in and tackle something that I'd been needing to correct... When building the fuselage what seems like years ago I had somehow managed to make the extreme rear fuselage (where the rear observation glazing mates) completely the wrong shape. In my example, you can see I've made the fuselage sides curved, and the upper and lower fuselage too curved as well: IMG_1859 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr ...when compared to the real thing - taken at the Charlwood museum - which shows flat sides and top: Tail Glazing by Thomas Probert, on Flickr So, using some better plans as well as the good old Mk1 eyeball, I made a new shape for the rear fuselage: IMG_1861 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr ...which when offered up already improves the look: IMG_1860 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The difference has now been built up with filler, and slowly a much better-shaped rear fuselage is beginning to emerge: IMG_1868 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Still plenty of shaping and blending to do, but I'm much happier with this now. I've also began inserting the framing into the cockpit as these will be needed to support the glazing when the time comes: IMG_1867 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I'm enjoying being back on this - let's see how long the motivation lasts! All the best, Tom

Good to see you back on this one - and hope you are settling well into your new surroundings. Now that you see the new nose offered up to the old, you can see the subtle differences and improvement on the original - which in itself was a significant improvement on the kit. However, in the pursuit of perfection, I can see your logic despite all the extra work involved. This is shaping up to be a one-of a kind build. So - will the interior details you have put in so far transfer over to the new nose ok? It'll be a shame to lose all that beautiful detail work you've put in so far... All the best, Tom