GusMac

Dad didn't sub them a loan? Or was that a 'teaching moment'?

Rest of the World - sloping armour is the way to go to maximise protection The Brits - nah, just make it bloody huge and it'll be fine! Looks like someone has left the cork in the end of the barrel as well.

Thanks fellas. It's been fun so far with a lot of learning along the way. Main learning point is that it isn't nearly as scary as I'd thought. 😆 As long as you take your time and do the prep properly and test fit everything it's actually not too different from IM other than having to use epoxy and CA for everything. That does the advantage though that everything is rock solid, you could beat someone to death with this thing now! Carl, virtually everything I'm doing is copied from Aigore's build over on LSP. I'd recommend looking it up and bookmarking it before you start as he's got some great photos in it - way better than mine.

Got some time off work this week Rob as I have to use my remaining days before the end of this month, so been able to really get at it. I did think about leaving the pylons off but the other builds I've been following for hints, etc installed them now, so I just followed suit. So, today's progress - Got the belly pylons smoothed in and so it was onto the topside. The canards went on surprisingly easily and the tail was a drop fit. Some filling required around both where the fine edges of the fillets have been chipped and broken but shouldn't be too onerous. Hoping to get it primed later this week. I've certainly learned a lot about working with resin and although there's a lot of prep and the filling, sanding loop, you actually make pretty quick progress once you get going as all the bigger parts as single piece castings, so it grows fast. Also learned that another tool you need is a box of sticking plasters! 🚑 Managed to stab myself with the microchisels twice in the last couple of days during parts cleanup. If I had a swear box I might have saved enough to buy another of these! 😁

Got all the main underside components on now. The casting of the pylons was pretty ropey so lots of clean up needed and the belly pylons are going to need a good bit of filler after the epoxy cures properly. The top edge of the pylon is essentially flat while the actual under surface has lots of curves and no flat point! The underwing pylons needed clamping to get them to conform to the curve of the wing but that was fairly easy to achieve. Next up, after filling around the belly pylons, is flipping it over and doing all the topside pieces, main ones being the canards and tail. Ready for primer soon hopefully,

Wow, 5 days from Japan to the Canaries is good going. Hope the shipping price wasn't inversely proportional to the shipping time!

They've done a couple of other barrel aged beers as well. One was a stout at 12% and the other was a Scottish Heavy at 9.6%, so they're not for the faint of heart. They do a really nice session Pale Ale at 3.8% as well as lots of other nice sensible beers, so it's not all insanely strong.

I'll join you in a vote for Doombar, it's a nice drinkable pint.

Sorry to hear of the travails of you both. Hopefully, you'll get through this and make it back to the club. I've had one of our dogs chew a few parts but never had one send a kit airborne. However, Jack Russells are bit smaller than German Shepherds!

Hi Phil, I've successfully used the Mr Levelling Thinner with Tamiya Gloss Black Lacquer. It goes down very smooth and dries hard as nails. It was certainly a bog improvement over the Extreme Metals black primer which never seemed to go off.

Well, a major bit of progress tonight.... Glued the front fuselage on, so we have the bulk of the airframe together. This view gives a better sense of scale and clearly confirms that it's not fitting in the spray booth! May have to look into Rob's suggestion for expanding the booth to let it fit. I also got the front windscreen removed from the casting block and trimmed and sanded to fit. Haven't glued it yet as I'm slightly unsure as to the best adhesive to use for a resin clear part. My go to is the PVA you can see behind it but I'm not sure how well that works with resin. All suggestions welcome!

Steep Grade from Burnside Brewery here in my own village. It's a barrel aged Belgian Quad at 14% - it's a 750ml bottle, so equivalent to bottle of red wine! Very drinkable which dangerous at that strength. Aged in casks from the Fettercairn distillery just up the road. The photo is taken at the top of the Cairn'o'Mount which is the local high pass over the hills into Royal Deeside after which the beer is named. It's a route I cycle occasionally as the 'steep' but of the name is well earned. The brewery owners are friends of mine, so got to give them a plug!

Not sure if I've just been unlucky Peter or if I've screwed something up somewhere. Other's builds have shown some gaps but nothing quite as big as this. It's almost like the 3D printed tail section is too small but anyway I think I'm there with the fix. Fingers crossed anyway!

Thanks Peter, I think I'm just learning about the challenges of resin kits. In the end I've gone for a hybrid of your's and Carl's suggestions. A styrene base with a skin of Miliput over the top. It's looking good so far but just needs a bit more blending and sanding. Will post some pics later.

All the best to you and Mary, Scott. It sounds flippant but it is one of the best cancers to have nowadays. As others have said my mum had breast cancer 40 years ago and is fit, healthy and about to turn 84 in a weeks time. That's also the reason I've spent 30+ years as an imaging physicist mainly doing cancer work.

Nice bit of the Right Stuff. You've got me digging more old albums out of the cupboard now!

Some supplies for the Viggen, reckon I'm going to need plenty of primer! The kit weapons are probably the weakest point so I got the Reskit offerings which were a better price than the Brassin ones and look as good to my eye.

Never seen such a detailed kit of a polished turd before. 😁

It's good but I preferred the original film. Always fun to see Hugh Grant in his natural state playing a scumbag.

Thanks fellas. I might give the Milliput a try Carl as saving on the sanding definitely sounds like a plus.

So after a couple of rounds of filling and sanding with the Bondo putty I've put some primer down to see where we are. Apologies for the crappy pics, it's big and heavy enough now to be difficult to move and hold and hang onto the phone! So, a bit more work needed, mainly on the underside. A lot is just hairline cracks in the Bondo so I'm moving on to the grey Tamiya putty as I hope the finer grain should deal with this. I'll now show what I'm facing next and it's got me a bit worried as I'm unsure how best to approach it. The wing root is correct at the leading edge and tight against the 3D printed tail piece at the join area but I've got this big gap and the bottom of the wing sits about 2mm proud of the corresponding 3D printed section. Another angle to show what I'm meaning. The problem is I'm constrained by the position of the inferior reverse thruster vent as you can see below. I can't grind down the wing as the flaps wouldn't fit correctly so I'm going to have to lose the difference in the short distance to the thruster vent. My plan is to plug the worst of the gaps with plasticard and then blend it with filler as I think all filler would be too prone to cracking, etc. Does anyone with experience of these type of kits think that's a sensible plan? I'm kind of stuck until I sort this out. It's a bit weird as the tail piece and wings fit perfectly everywhere else but something seems to have propagated to produce this. I know others have moaned about the wing fit on other forums but that's mainly been around the topside fit.

Looking really good. The paintwork is nice and faded. 👍

Grey Mr Surfacer 1500 is obviously easier to find in the US. It's like rocking horse poop over here at the moment. I spent a good hour hunting online for a European stockist with some in last night for use on the Viggen. Finally managed to track down 2 jars on Evilbay.

I remember reading a book which was written by one of the survivors, Parrado. Absolutely terrifying and a true testament to human survival in the bleakest circumstances.

That was Harry Secombe's nickname for himself