Lt. Biggles

Thanks everyone. Im leaving the country for a year or 2 so might be awhile before I get to start my next project! take care

Hello, hope you are all well! Its taken me a lot longer than i thought but I've been slowly working on her. Sorry I've not continued with the build log but there were a few disasters in the build and I had to just leave it and come back to it when i was ready. First one was when the shelf it was being kept on fell over during the night and it fell over 1.5m to the ground and across the room, many hours in the carpet finding as many parts as I could and was quite disheartening... it sat in a sad state for awhile. Then I slowly repaired it and continued with the build and was going pretty well, painted the superstructures and was doing the weathering and instead of using white spirits to remove excess and blend for some unknown reason I used Isopropyl alcohol!! and not just a little bit because when i first started to notice the paint being stripped right off I for some unknown reason thought the washes were causing the damage and decided in a hurry to clean the wash off everything as fast as I could to reduce further damage of course using the Isopropyl so everything (apart from the hull which was already complete) was totally stripped back to the primer or worse... so it kinda feels like I've built the ship twice. had a few other mishaps but none as bad as the 2 major ones. So it wasn't touched for most of the last year until I was back in the mindset to continue. After all it is a hobby so meant to be a fun and enjoyable in the whole right. So here She is all complete. I did enjoy the build a lot and thanks again to you all for the help and advise, in a way you guys helped me get back on the horse and keep going.

Thanks mate, yea you are right they did have hard edges it’s more a personal like. Just found a hard edge in the small scale was to violent. I went for a very subtle feather and seeing as it’s the base coat will get a few more layers to soften it all up. Here is the feather it has. the blue shade really pops out against the green. Thanks for the info on the rubber mats as a mask!

Hey, yea I had seen bluetak used before but was worried it would rip the paint off! It can be really sticky!! I have been thinking how best to do it for many many weeks! Just bit the bullet

Hey mate, yes all going well. Lots of Astro really enjoying it. Thought I better pop in for a little update. Hope all is well with you too?

So it’s been awhile since my last update, she says in my cupboard for a while between little bits and pieces. So thought I’d do an update. planning how to do the camo was what caught me out and it just sat there. primed and then some base work by airbrushing through a sponge. then grey coat of paint. took awhile how to work out the best way to mask so it has a slight feathered edge. Tape would have been a last resort. So using ziplock bags traced the camo with a pencil. then traced it to paper cut them out and stuck them on with Tamiya tape turned on itself to be double sided, took a few days! I then redid the base effects and applied the green top coat

Thanks, Just doing a bit here and there. With the camo It will change how I put it together so will build the lot and paint it as one rather than sections. A good chunk of the initial parts done just a few more levels and the PE

Hello, it’s been awhile! But had some time and in the right frame of mind to do some work on her. Started working on some of the super structure. Took only alittle bit to get back into the swing of things. Glad I’ve already done a ships PE set otherwise I’d not have a clue how things went together! They sure don’t make it easy! Haha The ships Woden deck only needed re glueing in 3 places where it had bubbled up so was quite pleased. The CA glue is new as my last lot got way too thick over the summer so it’s now stored in the vegetable fridge but it’s so thin I really struggled to get anything on my glue device (a thinned out tooth pick) so took awhile and lots of re glueing happened!

I’ve been super slack at the moment. But generally doesn’t take too long of a break to get back into it. Been spending more of my time doing Astrophotography and will have to knuckle down and keep going with the ship soon... it’s a hobby after all! I did add some more details to the deck, just got to get into the PE mindset and get the superstructure underway. will blend them in once the rest of the deck furniture is complete too. The wood deck is glued well and I’m happy with the hull so it’s been fun. here are some of my Astro shots I’ve been taking and distracting me from my build haha! I shall be back into the ship building in the next little while though

Yes that’s great thanks. I’m still just pondering how to attach the chain. Might drill a hole and feed it through otherwise it will not look right just glued to the outside

Have let the deck dry over a good few days, the parts that were glued down just using it’s own stick got quite a few lifts so is now probably 60% glued down with the gel medium. So if there is ever a next time I’ll definitely use gel medium or at least something to really stick it down as the stock glue doesn’t give a good bond even with the surface nicely prepared for it. I’ve not had much time so maybe the build will slow down alittle now, but have done some work on the anchor area. The kit seems to only want 2 chains to be on it, even though it provides 3. I’ve checked heaps of pics and can see all 3 chains on her. But the kit doesn’t have a opening for one of the chains to go below deck to storage. So might have to make one to try match the other two. Otherwise I’ll have the chain going from the anchor and then ending by just sitting on the deck which makes no sense.

When I get to that part I’ll take extra care mate, thanks. I’ve been abit slack lately haha! I think I’ll have to tone the nice shiny new deck down. Will see if it fades on its own too. Think a very runny light grey wash airbrush misted on will work great.

I searched a way to cut as small amount as I could. And found this spot where I could cut with the plank direction. Ended up doing it here where I assume are armoured handrails. Everything doesn’t quite line up in one big sheet unfortunately.

Rest of the wood deck went on. Stuck straight down with its own stickiness. In order to get the very front long one to match up I cut it very sneakily otherwise the middle part didn’t want to stick down. So all sitting flat and in the right place. Will give it some time to see how much of it will lift. having the deck on really changes how it looks.

Favourite plane you ever flew?