"A grand day out Grommit"
Thanks for posting the pictures Zak. Enjoyed the company and comradeship.
A good varied display from all those who attended. Nice to see other club members enjoying the show too.
Very nice to see Jon getting a very deserved Gold for his Vilderbeast in the competition.
Looking forward to the next show.
Cheers
Kevin

Hi All,
Well back to this one after a little break.
I have thinned the wing trailing edges by scraping them with a knife blade, and then sanding them. As supplied, they are quite thick. Added the resin wheel well walls, but got a bit carried away on rubbing down on one of them so I had to add a bit of plasticard to repair. Also I removed the locating hole for the main undercarriage as it didn't line up correctly with the opening. A new locating point was made from some sliced plastic tube.
Cockpit base and bulkhead joined together. To get correct angle, I used some plasticard to support the bulkhead and retain the angle. On the port side of the fuselage, I have added a strip of plastic card to support the floor on that side. Note I have drawn the floor and bulkhead positions on the fuselage sides in readiness for the resin detail parts later in the build.
As this is a short run moulding, it lacks locating pins, so strips of plastic sprue were added to the starboard sides to support the fuselage joint later on. Nose lights:- These are provided on the clear sprue, and are intended to fit into recesses that you make in the nose. From previous experience I noted the openings were not entirely circular, nor the parts. I therefore decided to drill two holes to insert some clear sprue later in the build. These will then be cut and sanded to shape with the fuselage exterior, and the actual shape of the glazing seen determined by careful painting and masking of the lights.
Similarly, the wing tip lights are provided moulded into the tip tanks or as clear moulded items. I decided to cut off the tip of each wingtip tank, and used the glazed offering. Fly models have provided these with a convenient dimple on the rear face of the glazed part, which I painted Tamiya Clear Green and Red, which will show once assembled and polished.   
The Rudder has a moulded trim tab actuator, as do the tailplane elevators. In order to portray these more realistically, I have cut away the moulded actuators to be replaced by scratch built items near the end of the build. I made my own narrow sanding stick from a cut down coffee stirrer to fit between the reinforcing ribs moulded on the rudder/elevators.
Some pictures of the above follow:-
Thanks for looking, until next time.
Kevin

Looks like it's coming together nicely. Paint shop soon?
Kevin

Hi All,
Well moving on. After a quick blast of Mr. Surfacer 1500 from an aerosol, I found that there were a few areas that still needed a little more attention. On the wing roots, there were a couple of dimples in the filler, on the fuselage sides a couple of moulding sink marks I hadn't noticed, and on the fin/rudder a couple of gaps where it didn't seat quite properly. Some Mr. Hobby filler was soon applied and when dry gently sanded to rectify.
Whilst the putty was drying, I assembled the weapons, and pylons, the undercarriage components, ready for painting.
Back soon after some paint on.
Thanks for looking.
Kevin 

Hi All,
Filling now done and rubbed down.
To reduce the amount of filler, I added thin strips of tape either side of the join line I wanted to deal with, also tape to the end of the join to prevent in going where I did not want it. I then applied Mr. Surfacer 500 with a small brush , brushing an even layer along the seam.
Left to dry overnight, then tape removed. The seam around the engine was a little too deep in places, so the filler was intended to reduce this. Rather than rubbing down with wet'n'dry I used a cotton bud and some Mr. Hobby thinner. Rubbed over the area, it removes any excess but leaves a thin amount in the seam line.
The wings were drubbed down in a more normal manner using two different grades of wet'n'dry.
The propellor was rubbed down where the blade assembly met the spinner, to smooth out this area.
The wing lights were polished after drilling them to create a recess where red and green was added to replicate the bulb. I glued them into place using thick superglue, and dipping them in baking powder. This make the glue go off and hard, and makes a hard filler if there are any gaps.
Thanks for looking,
Some pictures follow:-
Kevin
Ke

Gun turrets moulded in parts have always been difficult to master.
Looks like you are getting there though.
Keep at it.
Kevin

Certainly a different 'Hip'.
Those barrel antenna look ungainly in appearance, more like a laden donkey.
Kevin

Hi All,
Another change of tack. I thought of having a go at a more modern offering and have always wanted to do a Drone.
So I bought the Kinetic MQ-9 Reaper kit, which I think is actually from the Skunkworks moulding, and was also re boxed by Revell.
This Kinetics go at it and is nicely moulded in Grey and Clear plastic. It also has a really nice decal sheet with lots of options for Reaper UAV's operated by numerous countries. 
The wingspan is quite impressive, being about two and a half times that of a single engined WWII aircraft. At the moment I have done some basic assembly of the wings and navigation lights. I have also added the undercarriage bays and some plasticene/lead pellets to the fuselage bottom.
The way the model is moulded you would be able to see up and through the engine intake/exhaust, so to prevent this I have blanked off the rear of the undercarriage bay with plastic card and painted it very dark grey, no other detail just the blanking plates on the fuselage and engine assemblies.
The engine intake has some mould sink marks on the inside, both upper and lower. To fill these I used thick superglue and talc mixed together, allowed to harden naturally then it just sands/carves down as plastic to leave a nice smooth blemish free finish.
Prop goes together nicely, just a minimum of filling to do here. The engine pod needs a little work the upper seam needs to be tidied up with some filler and some panel line added where it fades out across the uppers.
Have done a quick dry fit and all looks like it will go together happily with little need for filling.
Some pictures follow:-
Thanks for looking.
Kevin