1/144 B-17

Not having built an aircraft for years and years ( I think I had hair down to my shoulders then) I decided to try one again but not having the space thought I'd plump for some 1/144 kits. The B-17 was always my favourite bomber of WWII and I built the Airfix kit back then, so I bought the Minicraft kit. Well, it was not as accurate as I'd hoped and required quite abit of work to it. A lot of the parts (mainly the 2 fuselage halves) don't fit very well, as doesn't the cockpit glass. As there's nothing to see inside I painted these blue/black as this also means you can paint in all the glass that is missing ie the windows over the pilot seats, the rear pilot side windows and the windows where the bombadier and navigator sit. Guns were cut from surgical canulas/drawing up needles and will be attached last. A good option is to provide your aircraft in flight with pins provided to attach your "spinning" props to the nacelles, which is what I intend to do. I'll get some pictures up soon.
I noticed in a picture that that some B-17s had anti-glare Olive Drab painted on half of their nacelles so I decided to paint this on just to provide a bit of contrast with the silver. I still have some black to paint along the wing edges and then the decals and guns and I'll call it done. Here are a few progress pics so far.

I'm calling this done now. It's not really been a pleasure to build more a bind to be truthful. I was going to add a wash and some weathering but to be honest I couldn't be bothered. The decals were dreadful and very thick and didn't settle down well even with decal fix. You get red bands for the wings and tail fins, but because they're so thick they wont conform to the wings properly so I ditched these and tried to mask and paint them myself. It actually looks better in the pictures than in real life. I've not been put off 1/144 aircraft, on the contrary, I have a couple of B-52s, a B-24 and a B-29 in the stash waiting.

I had a go at making the props in flight but this needs more work for the next one. The props are too thick and too dark. They should be more of a thin, faint "V" shape than an actual prop shape. I might actually cut out the V shape next time and leave a longer curved bit along the outer edge for the yellow.

Airfix WWI MkI tank in Gaza

Over on Missing Lynx I am taking part in a group build of any AFV/tank/armoured car that has served in the Middle East since 1914 until the present day. I decided to build a MkI male HMLS Sir Archibald which served in Palestine during WWI and took part in the Battle for Gaza. The only MkI you have to work with is the Airfix kit but to make it a MkI you have to make various changes to as it best makes a MkII, but you can also make a MkIII from it as well. This is my first real attempt at a conversion and so far I'm quite happy with the results. One of the hardest parts is trying to recreate the the rivets of which there are a lot of!!!

I left  a post on ML which provided me with a few ideas for the rivets, however in the mean time I grew impatient and tried using super glue gel, applying the individual rivets with the end of a sharpened toothpick. They turned out better than I thought. I also tried stretching sprue and gluing them into drilled holes but this is very time consuming and difficult to get the sprue the same width. When I build another one I will use some very small round plastic rod and see how that compares.

The other changes include cutting off the "cheese dish" and sealing the hole with plasticard, replacing it with a round hatch, enlarging the cab area and filling in the square hatch on the roof, and changing the exhaust to upside down "V" plates. Two new "T" bar supports were also added on the roof along with an "L" bar across the roof of the sponsons. The cab also needs gun port shields and visors on the sides. Phew!! These last things were the trickiest due to their size.
 Below is just before an undercoat.

...and just after an undercoat.

I've now put a couple of coats of Vallejo English Uniform khaki on it and painted the tracks. Almost done. Pics to follow.

Its amazing what you pick up when you see it on your pc screen. There are quite a few bits I've missed so another coat is in order. i'll do that tonight.

On closer inspection the rivets look way too big and flat. I still have to make an armoured box to cover the lifting mechanism for the tail wheels which were fitted to MkI's to help with steering. It was soon discovered that these did little if anything at all to help and were taken off all subsequent tanks and probably any remaining ones in the field. By the time these MkIs got to Palestine the wheels were left off but on HMLS Sir Archibald a plated box covering this was left on. Hopefully I can fit the tank's name onto this as it was in the field, but if not it'll have to go on the front glasis plate.
I've built the metal covering for the tail wheel hydraulics which fits at the back. It needs painting and gluing on then I can start on the decals and weathering. I tried a different method for the rivets, using 0.5mm plastic rod, however they're still too big and some came off when sanding them down as best I could. I need to cut them smaller next time.