HubertB

You don’t risk anything for asking, do you ? Me, I keep my Precious [Fisher kits] (including the Skyray), in my hooked hands, all fangs glistening in the dark, so beware … 😂 Hubert

Nice one, Kriss 👍! Hubert

A few weeks ago, the air here over Central Portugal was hazy with the Canadian wildfires smokes. Nothing like last Wednesday however, where a fire on Serra de Montejunto, 45 kms north of Lisbon, was pushed by strong Northern winds. We live 20 kms south of Losbon, and the evening sky was brown with smoke, and the air smelled burnt wood during the subsequent night. The fire was put out quickly, during the night, by some 380 firemen and 10 aerial support crafts, thankfully. Nothing like that with the Canadian fires, unfortunately. Hubert

The general rule is that US Navy aircrafts take a lot of beating, and weather rapidly (but then the paint is patched-up by maintenance crews as allowing corrosion is a no-go, hence the quilted effect which, for once, is justified). This said, the weathering was a lot heavier on the Forrestal-class CVs than the CVNs, because of the fuel exhaust soot from the boilers. And, most likely, the US Navy wanted their Tomcats to look pristine for the Hollywood guys … So, I’d say little weathering is the best option for this specific model … Hubert

Simultaneous post with Peter … And glad I could (modestly) help on this one … Hubert

The pre-order link is here … https://www.airscale.co.uk/#!/airscale-Pro-1-32-TBD-Devastator/p/572300117/category=153261775 Peter has really gone to town on developing this set. HTH Hubert

Good fix on the windscreen, Ernie. There should be soon a great AM set for the cockpit. It will help a lot to fill this huge space under the greenhouse. Keep the great work. Hubert

The problem with PE flat « rigging » is effectively the thermal expansion differential between the metal and plastic or resin. It’s going to sag at some time in the kit’s life. Even Paul Fisher, who supplies flat PE wires for the Ryan ST-M / PT -20, advises against using it … I ended up using round monofilament, and only the keenest eye will argue it’s the wrong profile. If you need the structural strength of wires, and therefore monofilament, then round wire is still a better option than flat PE. I have found flat monofilament, which is rarer than a hen’s teeth, but it is so wide that I am not even sure it could be used on the 1/32 Swordfish … If structural strength is not needed, then Prym or the like can be used … Hubert

The epitome of this being the F-22 : weird - if not ugly - looking squatting on the ground, but impressively beautiful in flight … Hubert

You’re right. I just did a quick search. Many tanks had a V-12, including the German MBT of WWII, the Russian tanks from T-34 to T-72 … Plus trucks, and even boats … (the cars and aircrafts are an easy group to identify) Hubert

One subject that always appealed to me was « 12-cylinders engine». That would open the field to a lot of aircrafts and, on LSM, some cars and even, I believe, some tanks Hubert.

That’s nothing compared to Kevin ‘s extraordinarily bad influence. That microscope and screen is some seriously great and useful stuff for modelling, but it ain’t cheap … See what you done, Kevin 🤬 ? Hubert

Great choice ! I have found memories of the Monogram ‘57 ‘Vette I built in my youth years. I api ted it blue and cream 🙄 Hubert

I think you nailed the issue, Rob ! That was piss-poor planning on my side! I looked at that bang-seat picture I don’t know how many times without managing to get the full picture. And not only the pic, but the drawings from the various manuals, including the tensioning device detail drawing in the Ginter book. Then my brain stopped farting, but I had already committed to assembly, so it was disassembly, and more than once ! Ditto for the paint: I had read, and it’s mentioned by Fisher, that the seat was Interior Green. Then I re-read the painting instructions in one of the manuals, and found out that the tub was also painted Interior Green ! If I had any prejudice that I was good at planning my modelling tasks, than this misconception was shot down in flames by my Cutlass Sic transit gloria mundi … Hubert

Well, as this GB is drawing to its end, it’s time to show where I am standing with it. It won’t be much of a surprise if I say it’s nowhere near finished. The last weeks have been a demonstration of the consequences of poor planning, and not understanding well enough what I was seeing and what it meant for the project. Most of the issues have arisen from working on the ejection seat. But first, this is what the original looked like : Plenty of info to integrate, and to translate into a model. Not in particular the safety belt, and the hint at how it goes above the seat tubing structure into what is probably a tensioning device ( a drawing of which is shown in the Ginter book). Note also ghe rear structure of the seat, with some tubes (the central one being the rocket propulsor). Finally, note the headrest, its attachment to a tubes’ structure, and the way it stands proud of the rear structure, made of I-beams and the top structure bearing an armoured panel, and the face curtain mechanism. Fisher has represented the seat with one part of the rear structure directly molded with the rear cockpit tub bulkhead. The face curtain / armoured plate structure is an add-on by Fisher, to be glued to the seat bucket, to which some PE parts are added to represent the side-tube of the seat-bucket, and the side leg-guards. They are , es expectable with PE, a bit flat and two-dimensional. The seat harness is also PE, and is glued to the tube structure supporting the headrest. As I have written, my kit suffered in the past from some resin-tasting and munching by my cat. Fortunately, I could order a replacement from Paul, but the replacement were badly warped in some areas, like the rear bulkhead, the armoured plate/face curtain mechanism or the headrest tube structure. Some kit-bashing between what I could salvage of the original cockpit, and some scratch-building was of the order of the day. However, I had not understood well enough the details of the seat. For instance, I had scratchbuilt the headrest structure, with tubes, rods, some folded brass sheet, when I realised that the bucket structure and the rear structure needed to go together, and to leave some space for the belt-tensioning device … So enters the saw to remove a resin plug from the rear of the bucket, and a chisel to remove the rear seat structure from the bulkhead ! Nerve-wracking sequence # 1 ! But then, it dawned on me that the resin on the back of the bucket seat was still too much. Nerve-wracking exercise #2 : get the power tool out to remove the excessive resin with a burr ! Yes, you are right, it’s a bad idea when you have already glued in some delicate parts, which started flying to feed tha carpet monster ! And then the poor planning / bad documentation analysis came back to the forefront : not only the seat, but the cockpit tub, bulkhead, control yoke and pedals were not black but interior green ! Ok, I need to mask the side consoles without damaging any of the details there … And nerve-wracking exercise #3 done ! On the above pic, you will also notice that I have rebuilt and added to the bulkhead the guides between which the the seat I- beams slided during the ejection sequence. These were made with some folded brass sheet, and plastic rod « rollers ». I had annealed the Fisher-supplied seat harness, but I was still struggling with the fact that it was not a good representation of the tensioning device behind the bucket. And then the carpet monster ate one half of it ! But these early ejection seat harnesses used basically the same model as the WWII prop-planes harnesses. And I had a supply of those, from HGW, in the AM stash. Those of you who have used them know what treading the harness through the PE buckles can be : nerve-wracking exercise #4 ! (Btw, although it’s here, done in full 10-pieces detail, I forgot to take a puc of the rear of the bucket with the harness-tensioning device - sorry) And here is the result of 4 weeks of doing, undoing, redoing, re-undoing, re-re-doing, and repainting : The next pics shows the seat blu-tacked together. The « floating » wire-bundle on the right side of the rear seat frame actually attaches to the side of the bucket, so this will be done when the seat is put together. I am still unsure whether this should be done now, or after the cockpit tub has been glued in position in the front fuselage. And a final view of the repainted cockpit tub … Time to move on to detailing the front LG bay. The below pic shows what Fisher is supplying. Two point to note: 1) the big tube on the bottom left of the bay is already and add-on. It is the tube that brings compressed air from one of the engines to the pipe on the landing gear that feeds the turbine pre-rotating the wheels before landing, to reduce the whiplash effect on the gear at touch-down. 2) the ram in the center is actually the one that actuates the closing of the gear-bay doors. As such, it is too long, and needs shortening, as below : Note on the bottom of the bay the compressed tube is prolonged. The ribbed effect was done by coiling some 0.4 mm wire around a 1 mm dia solder wire. And that is where I stand (with a bit more details still done since) one day before the GB ends ! Hubert

YESSSSS ! Now I can see my « pot-de-vin » worked. The next Sunday July 10 th is in …2033 ! Now I have ample time to finish my Cutlass 👍 ! Hubert

It was with the venerable Monogram kit, IIRC … Hubert

… of an african swallow ? Hubert

Great looking Arado ! An original and well executed subject 👍 ! Hubert

I really dig the looks of this one. Sleek and fast. This said, I understand the key reason for it loosing out to the Canberra was that it had only 30 % of the B-57’s loiter time on target, which is a useful benefit for a tactical bomber … Keep it coming Hubert

WOT ? Vade retro Satanas ! Fear the wrath of the Almighty Rivets-Counter Brigade ! A nose can change the world. Think about Cleopatra’s nose and the famous saying … I’ll rest my case here, and will go looking for that spot of eternal lack of sunshine 🫣 Hubert the Pure and Untouchable 🤪

What I know is that the push for even more detailing and improvement can be a mojo killer sometimes. I am with the others: building a good-fitting, OOB kit can restore the pleasure of modelling. I will add however that, personally, I find myself unable to build OOB for subjects I am keen on, like aircrafts. So, if looking for a mojo restorer, I’d probably go for something completely out of my modelling ares of interest. That would probably mean a car, or a motorcycle, or maybe an exotic subject like a tractor or bulldozer … But I know you are modelling trucks, cars, armour and aircrafts … Maybe a Bandai Star Wars subject is a good idea ? Hubert

I had not noticed it either. Now that you mention it, it’s obvious. And it’s going to be a bear to correct, agreed Hubert

Well, I spent ages on the Devastator, and bought about all the documentation you can find (spare the Erection and Maintenance manual, which is rarer than finding a hen's teeth on 4-Thursdays' week) From your pics, I'd agree that the cockpit looks barren compared to what it could be. But the basics seem to be here. I'm pondering whether I should sit in front the computer and design a "proper" cockpit, to be printed ... Hubert

Great project, but I confess I could not unsee the warped fuselage. When I saw the pic, It jumped at me, but I thought it mus be a parallax issue with the picture … alas no Hubert PS: I remember getting involved in a p..#ng contest with Dandiego on eBay to get my hands on a vacformed 1/32 B-51. Common sense prevailed and I let it go before any of us two engaged silly money on what was a just a vac kit in the end …