Clunkmeister

Last hurrah for the nasty bench. High gloss smooth finish, lukewarm water and lots of setting solution, and one of them still silvered. Hmmm. Ain’t that a kick in the head! I’ll try to hide it but if no luck, off it comes and use one from my spares box.

I’d agree on a Sterling, but a Wellington just makes sense.... If we got a Sterling, then a Hamilcar would be hopefully along soon.

After the Lanc, this needs to happen.

The one WW2 aircraft that'd be PERFECT for Wingnut Wings would be the Vickers Wellington. Designed by Sir. Barnes Wallis himself, so it continues (precedes, actually) the Dambusters theme, carries the name of the city Wingnuts is located in, and can you imagine that surface treatment done the Wingnuts way? I'd be in happy happy land. I can't see anyone else doing a Wellington, only Wingnut Wings. A truly underappreciated bomber which brought the war to the enemy in a big way until the Lanc and Halifax came on the scene. The Wellie is one of those rare aircraft that served on the front lines for the entire war, and just like the Liberator, was used for countless different missions, and performed admirably at them all.

And Canadian Pacific Railway even flew them

And here’s the exact aircraft I flew on many times as a child

C-47s falling through the ice wasn’t exactly uncommon.

This could very easily be a scheme I'd do. It would even match the HK Lanc scheme Jeff you're right. There was NO mistaking RCAF or CAF birds, no matter where they went. Even the go-to-war nuke equipped 101 Voodoos carried a similar scheme for awhile.

Oooh, that Colt is sweet. The Challenger ain't bad, either. Personally I turfed my 1911s and BHPs back into the safe and have gone all in with CZ.75s now. Same train, different wagon. But there ain't no fin jewelry like a well made and tastefully decorated 1911... CZ now has a 75 variant in 45ACP as well. "A 9mm 'might' expand, but a 45 never shrinks".. yadda yadda yadda...

Shave and a haircut?

Ooooh Martin, that’s just mean. The P-59 was a pretty pathetic jet fighter, but it was the first in the USA so we give them space.

Yup. Anytime, Tony

Very nice job on the big Boeing. I like whe weathering and your subtle extra details. Just enough without going too overboard.

Nige, regarding the different tables, maybe it’s the dreaded Mk.X vs Mk.l/lll thing again? I think we all know now that we can’t take late model Mk.X examples and assume they’re the same as earlier British built examples. As you had brought up before, you can’t trust the restorations and Canadian pictures to give an accurate example.

Awesome, Bill! Another F-5, yesssssssssss!

Also, the year 2019 is going to be a good one. All kinds of cool things will be happening. For example: This one is looking crazy promising. The fit is stellar, it there is very little surface detail and NO rivet detail. After Martin’s adventures with his MuG, I think Archer rivets might be in store.

It’s going to be an interesting year. This weekend after the F-5F is finished, my bench is going bye bye. A new 8ft wood table is going up, followed by all new organizers. All decals and AM goodies will be catalogued and documented. Paints and brushes will be placed, a new Hobbico mat will go down, and two aircraft will be on the bench, the SB2C, and the Lanc.

Well, we’re whipping her into shape. Nothing special, just good, clean fun. A good coat of Future, a final buffing, and now time for decals tomorrow.

You get used to it, Martin. The trick for me on the 46 was to pull my seat forward. Even in my youth I looked like an idiot. The first airline trip I remember was on a DC-3. Actually, the first bunch of airline trips were on DC-3. It sure beat taking the train or driving. The mainline airlines were running DC-8s, DC-9s, Viscounts and Vanguards Less than 200 kts is boring today, but back then, man, you were flying.

I used to joke with the Doug Jockeys about how even all up loaded with full fuel and oil, toothbrushes and flight bags, plus a little "extra" freight for Mother and Country, the Doug still weighed less than the empty weight of our 46s. We'd run right by them if we shoved the loud levers forward, but the bigshots really frowned at that. so we were still faster, but maybe by only 25 kts or so, not much, really. But the 46 not only carried more freight, she sure loved to drink fuel. A great moneymaker when loaded. But it'd break a guy quick if you were running Douglas loads in them. One thing that really surprised me was how slippery they were. You push the nose down, and speed would build up quickly. You could hit 250 kts real easy if you let it go. Not good for the engines, obviously. So you paid attention. You treat them well, they treat you well. I never had an engine failure either, although I did have one prop go screwy, not a runaway per se, but it started surging and not responding to input. Slowed down to maximum left leg extension speed (still had pedal travel left) and that didn't cage it, so because we were at 12500, pulled back the good one and hung it nose high till it finally feathered. That little exercise took almost 6000 ft. That day I actually had visions of them finding a torn up 2800 about 5 miles from the main debris field.. Even though the CAF had pretty much finished with the Daks when I was flying commercially, I remember while flying privately how your Daks were always so spiffy and well presented, and then when I was flying, our equipment was wearing more Aeroshell than was in the tanks. Good memories.

They look positively dejected

Martin, you're nuts.

Yeah, it's not the persona I put out, is it? I've slowed down quite alot in the last 5 years. Age and abuse catching up to me,

Bear was Joy’s dog. He left us for Doggie Heaven last year. A black Pomeranian, he was the most comical dog I’ve ever known. And smart and acted almost human to the point of being scary. And the grey poodle is Dollie Jo. We inherited her when Joy’s Aunt died and we almost didn’t take her because she was mean, mean, mean. But we did, I told her if she wasn’t nice I’d cook her up for supper, and a minute later she was suddenly my best friend. (And I am not a frufru dog guy.) I tend more to German Shepherds. But Dollie Jo passed a couple of years ago and left a big hole in my heart. They both loved to cuddle, and I caught Dollie drooling on my pillow. Every night she’d do this. Fake sleep on my pillow and when I went lie down she’d growl at me like she wanted to tear my face off. Then I’d lie down and she’d lay on my face till I scratched her ears.

For inflight, you forgot the F-111 and Su-24.