Archimedes

I think of it this way; Buying models and being a scale modeller are two different hobbies. Enjoy both. Kind regards, Paul

Cycling Guy, I think you are doing yourself a great disservice: you mottling, to these eyes, looks very convincing. As someone who struggles mightily with paint finishes, I tip my cap at you braving such a challenging camp scheme straight out of the gate and pulling it off so well. Bravo! Kind regards, Paul

A 1/32 DC-3 is a bit of a Holy Grail for me. What makes this kit such a bear to build? Kind regards, Paul

I don’t agree - Compare it with a clear side view of a real FW190 A series and they look to have it right. Sorry I could not get a dead-nuts side on view of the real one but its was as close as I could get. I have seen plenty of drawings that have side elevations that have the underside of the fuselage too flat. Kind regards, Paul

Hi Andy - yes I refreshed the page several times and it comes up blank each time. I’ve also tried it on PC and a Mac desktop to see if there is anything system related stopping it. The page does not load on any of those machines. Kind regards, Paul

Hi Max, I just tried to access your site via my iPad and it came up as ‘not secure’ and I could not access it. As you know I am in the USA. Sorry for your troubles! Kind regards, Paul

Thank you B-17!

Hi All, Which boxing of HK’s B17 should one pick to model: a) B-17F Wabash Cannonball, Boeing Built, Serial 42-29947 b) B-17G Thunder Bird, Douglas Aircraft Built, Serial 42-38050 Askin’ for a friend. Kind regards, Paul

Oh me, oh my Max. That Hawker Demon is something to behold! Not only is it a beautiful aircraft, it is also incredibly well built. A tip of the cap to you Sir. Enjoy Italy! In bocca lupo! Kind regards, Paul

Really nice work Max! Kind regards, Paul

Thanks Kev - life got in the way for a while. I have been admiring your builds in the interim. You paint technique is light years ahead of mine! Kind regards, Paul

Thank you Max, this build was not only about making a (reasonably) accurate Tiger Moth floatplane, learning some scratchbuilding and rigging techniques but also about finishing (which I always take too long to do). Nearly there. The four wires in front of the cockpit: I intend to use the ‘guitar wire’ method for those, in the same way I did the float assembly. The holes are already pre drilled in the top cowling of the fuselage and under the top wing to take the pre-cut wires. they will be a bit fiddly to get in but I am sure it can be done. I have a loooong way to go to build anything as well as your Gauntlet but I shall persevere! I hope all is going well with you. Kind regards, Paul

Yeahhhhh! It’s been a long time hasn’t it? So close to the finish now…. Life got in the way for a while; you know the drill. So where is G-AIVW up to now? Well, the top wing was glued onto the cabane struts but I did not glue in the interplane struts. Why? Several reasons: 1. I wanted to emulate turnbuckles for the standing rigging: It struck me that I would have an easier time accessing where the wire loops to attach the turnbuckles would go without the interplane struts in the way. 2. I only had 3 interplane struts. Remember this was a second-hand car-boot-sale, already started kind of kit and when I came to cut the interplane struts from the sprue I found that one was missing. So, the 4th strut would have to be made. 3. Of the 3 interplane struts I did have, the one carrying the pitot tubes was inexplicably 2.5 mm shorter than the other two. So some modification would have to be done there. I think the previous owner of the kit had sanded one end of the pitot-carrying interplane strut but the end result was that it was short. You will notice I cut through the interplane strut and the intention was to put a fillet in and reglue it. I took the opportunity to cut off the lump of plastic that represented the pitot tube and was able to fashion a far more convincing pitot from some brass wire. Now it was time to make the wire loops and turnbuckles…. I took some very fine wire and double it over in a pin vise. I put s 0.5 mm drill bit through the loop. I then spun the drill bit and voila: a neat wire loop. So I made many more of them and my trusty Swann Morton shows the scale of them. I then did a trial run of what a turnbuckle would look like when fastened to one of the wire loops: I did the trial run with very fine copper wire rigging but that is not what I used for G-AIVW itself. In the photo above is a small length of 1.0 mm brass tube which represents the turnbuckle itself. It is not very accurate as a turnbuckle nor for the Tiger Moth in particular but remember this aircraft is a rigging mule yes? I was just getting experience doing different rigging techniques. So the float assembly has 0.009 gauge guitar sting as its rigging medium, I used nylon ‘invisible’ mending thread for the control cables and intended to use EZ-Line for the interplane standing rigging. Things did not go to plan on that because when I did the first line with EZ-Line it was clearly too thin for this scale. The EZ-Line I have would be much better suited to 1/48 or even 1/72 scale. I also thought it could do for rigging cables on 1/350 ships but that is another story. So, for the interplane standing rigging I went with the Nylon invisible mending thread but at a slightly thicker gauge. The first job was, however to ensure that the wire loops were fastened in using CA glue (I used Gorilla CA Gel). You can see the embedded wire loops in the image above. The next thing to do was to spray the interplane struts. This is when the wheels came off this build (no pun intended): I decanted and degassed some more of the Testors red that I have used for the rest of the build and then shot a coat across the three kit interplane struts and sundry other parts that will be fitted at the end of the build. This was the result when I sprayed them with my ancient Paasche VL. Bah humbug! This was bizarre as all parts looked smooth as they were sprayed and then after drying they all had the bubbles you can see, right down the middle! So in true G-AIVW style the paint was stripped and I reprimed all of the parts. I intend to brush paint the interplane struts but everything else got re-shot with my new Iwata brush and the misfiring Paasche has been sent in disgrace to West Coast Airbrush for a refurb. I am sure you will recall the various pieces of scratch building that had to be done for the cockpit. I ruined the wood instrument panels with inadequate masking and so had to redo them. This time I did the instrument panels in black and refitted them. At this point I had not fitted the P-Type compass to the front cockpit. You can see that I had fitted the control rigging for the elevator and rudder too. You can also see the repairs to one of the snapped of water rudders in the image below. I fitted the interplane struts, still in their grey primer and then confirmed what everyone was telling me all along: rigging is actually not difficult. Here is where she is at the moment: semi rigged. There are quite a few detail pieces to add (including the aero screens), more rigging to do and plenty of detail painting left, but I am pleased the adventure with this little kit is on the home straight. My main learning from this build is that the hard yards have always been dealing with the kit’s foibles rather than issues rigging it. Kind regards, Paul

Nice. All of those are welcome additions to the early airframes that are available. Kind regards, Paul

Agreed - I’ll stop gnawing at this bone now and go build something. Kind regards, Paul