GusMac

Hi Hubert, yes I did a double take myself when I uploaded that picture. I think because everything is black the rail on the right isn't very visible, certainly not in my usual half-baked pictures. 😁

Yes, it does look someone's cut'n'shut the front of a Jet Provost onto a Hunter.

Bit of significant progress today. Got the cockpit floor and instrument panel glued in and dropped the splitter plates in. They are unglued and centre themselves when the fuselage is glued together. Thankfully then remembered to glue the tail wheel well in before I joined the fuselage. Would have been a bugger to fit after the fact as it's wider than the hole in the rear of the fuselage and would have meant trying to burst the epoxy joints. Just some tape to keep things tight while the epoxy cures fully but everything fitted in nice and snug and there's only going to be a little bit of filler and sanding needed which is a relief.

Great film which brings back real childhood memories. Stellar cast and it made me read all the Jack Higgins books. I'll have to watch again now to try and spot the Reliant - certainly never noticed it before. Hope Del Boy wasn't working on their chandeliers! That one will be lost on most non-UK members. Apologies

Ha, technicalities!

I actually think the Hunter T7 doesn't look too bad compared to some of the monstrosities that we churned out at that time - Argosy comes to mind!

Had a slight panic tonight when I thought that I'd screwed things up by attaching the nose before installing the splitter plates and they wouldn't fit. Thankfully after cleaning them up fully and test fitting them properly they actually pop right into place and give the cockpit floor a far more positive fit. It's looking like everything should fit together really nicely, well until I find a way to foul it up. 🤪

Yes, from what I've read the handling issues with this were what confirmed that tail draggers just weren't a viable option for carrier jets.

It's either extremely cold or that's a lot of shrinkage!

Seen worse - I once had a physics professor who's 'filing system' was a pile of paper 3 feet high in the middle of his office. The amazing thing was if you asked him for something he just used to dive into the middle of it and come out with what you'd asked for. None of us could ever work out how the hell he did it! 😆

After some test fitting and checking of pictures online I decided not to follow the assembly sequence in the instructions. The instructions state, and pictures confirm, that the intake lips sit proud of the fuselage sides and after much fiddling around I just couldn't see how that could be achieved if I followed the instructions and assembled the nose halves first and then attached that to the joined rear fuselage. So, So, the nose sections have been joined to their respective fuselage halves and the whole thing will be joined conventionally. There looks like there will be a slight gap in the upper nose just in front of the windscreen but nothing that a little filler won't sort. Compared to some of the gaps on the Viggen this will be a cinch. The improvised holder was just to let the 5-minute epoxy cure fully before proceeding. I think I'll also add some tabs to the inside of the nose to help with getting the cockpit floor to sit level.

So, on with the cockpit and interior. Given how short the operational life of these airframes was these pieces are almost certainly over-weathered but it was just going to a black coalhole otherwise, so artistic licence applied. The belts are made of lead foil from a wine bottle and the PE buckles from an HGW set so definitely not completely accurate but close enough to what I've found in pictures of the MB Mk2 for me. Not a lot is going to be visible once the front fuselage is closed up so FICE applies. Just waiting for the instrument panel decals to dry and then we can get this all assembled although that might be easier said than done - the locating tabs for the cockpit floor are vague at best so I foresee a good bit of fiddling about and cursing ahead!

They'll have to be tartan flares then!

The seat in my kit is 3D printed rather than cast and it's missing the ejection handle, so quick bit of work with some 0.6mm lead wire. There is also supposed to be a PE fret looking at reviews online but this is missing from mine, so no seatbelts and no instrument panel coaming. The belts on the MB Mk2 seat look pretty simple so I'm hoping to use the buckles from this and some lead foil to knock something up. To be honest most reviews say the PE is very thick so this might be a better bet anyway. The coaming I'm hoping the make with some 0.5mm plastic card but I'll wait until the cockpit is ready to fit so I can get the shape correct. All the cockpit pieces have been primed and have had a coat of rubber black as a base. Everything in the cockpit is black so it's going to be hard to detail and weather but I suspect when it's closed up you're not going to see too much anyway.

The missus was using her sewing machine tonight so I couldn't crank up the airbrush to prime the cockpit parts of the Attacker. Instead, I finished this little thing. Apologies for the second photo being out of focus, it's actually hard to photograph as it's so shiny. Goes together really well for something that just clips together. Was a fun little distraction.

Same as they said! 👍

Looks good, definitely more substantial than the Aires one. It looks like it's been on a diet.

Recognise a few I built/massacred as a kid in there. I certainly recall making a complete dog's breakfast of of a dio with Monty's Humber as I didn't realise lacquers wouldn't play nice with polystyrene.

So this is the next project on the bench, continuing my adventures in resin courtesy of Ernie. Construction starts with the wings which went together pretty easily. The spar and wheel well parts snap into place very nicely. The resin is quite hard and sands well without scarring the surface, so clean up is straightforward. The casting blocks are easily removed and cleverly placed. Small amount of filler needed but rescribing was straightforward. Next up is the cockpit which is mainly black, so not the most exciting.

I've started assembling the wings for the Attacker and while I was waiting for the filler to cure I made a start on a little photo-etch style Millennium Falcon that my son gave me for my birthday. I'll start a WIP for the Attacker once I get the wings sanded and done. Everything has been very easy to clean up and assemble so far. Hope it continues.

The 'timber' looks great Kriss, very lifelike.

Great problem solving Hubert. The transparent coaming looks excellent.

Thanks for the cool video Ralph. Think I'd wet my pants if I saw that coming around the car park towards me though! 😄

Good grief, those are tiny. Not sure I'd have the patience to try and paint those.

Not on the bench, actually on the kitchen table, but this is the next project on the ramp. After doing the Hasegawa excavator I decided to stick with the esoteric, so it's another item in my resin indoctrination courtesy of Ernie. Looks like it should be a bit simpler than the Viggen. Need to do some research on colours, etc but hope to get started this week.