king derelict

Unless you are silly enough to use black primer on the fret first! Just did that. I now have a scrap piece of clear acrylic used with a sheet of white paper for future silliness. The black acrylic square is a great base for cutting PE and I use a similar bending tool. I find it easier to line up the folds exactly. I have the pliers but on my set the jaws don’t line up perfectly. Not sure if that’s my fault. I think we all develop our preferences for handling PE. I have the former for circular bending which works well with a selection of drill bits. Alan

Very nice work OC. The Life Guard is excellent; lovely painted detail. Alan

I can't believe how fast time is slipping by. Too much time at work doesn't help but today I wasn't needed so after fixing the ice maker, replacing wipers on the car and changing out the blown license plate bulb (one of the disadvantages of driving home from work at midnight - if there is anything wrong with the car you're a magnet for bored cops) then it was time to do a little work. I've had the hot wire cutter out to get the basic shape of the seascape. Its not a precision tool - at least in my hands but this would be difficult with a knife. I think the basic form is good. Now I think I will need to start building up the sides and improve the shape. Possibly with Scultamold. I'm adding the details and its great watching the model start to come alive. So far I am enjoying adding the PE. The White Ensign stuff seems nicely "dead" no real spring which makes bending easier. A lot of small parts from the kit; mostly ventilators. I'm working on the rafts and boats off the model but did add the one mounted on the depth charge racks. That seems an unusual location and there is nothing to confirm it on any of the images of any Flower in Lambeth's book - but the one photo of Spiraea on the IWM site clearly shows the raft on the racks so good job Mirage. But now I notice I was too hasty and didn't add straps to hold the raft in place. Uff. I did get brave and add the stays to the funnel which used up several months allocation of bad language. Trying to get the thread to adhere to the upper section of the funnel was difficult and eventually accomplished with bits of masking tape (and shameful words) I think I have the forecastle railings, the weaponry, rafts and dinghies to add and a general tidy up. I've used Black Cat resin for the 4 inch QF, Oerlikons and 2 pounder and very nice they are. I made up the twin Lewis guns from the White Ensign PE and they stretch my eyesight. They even have separate magazines in the fret (about 1 mm in diameter). I think they are better than the kit parts I had been wondering what they were on and on through the build and the penny finally dropped. I think the PE is a bit of an improvement. Slow progress but its enjoyable. The Mirage kits are not going to get confused with Flyhawk but they are nice to work with and the detail is generally good. There are few location indications and the instructions are vague in places (and the part numbering is wrong in several places) but I suppose they are juggling four different configurations of the basic model). Its proving to be a fun return after a year of filing stone blocks Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments Alan

The paintwork looks neat and well done. Great job Alan

Vert nice work. The wake is very convincing Alan

The Life Guard looks great. The horse is nice too; quite a dynamic pose. Alan

Some of those tail sections were getting impressively warm. Those blue bands suggest they got over 900F if thats the titanium showing. Alan

Well two weeks seems to have disappeared forever. Work is currently on a noon to midnight pattern so not much else is getting done.. A little progress is being made at the weekends but its slow. I'm finding the usual Flower problem; very little information on individual configurations. I have found one (IWM) photo of Spiraea and that shows the bridge and mast configuration to be as the Mirage kit and not as in the profile in the Lambert Flowers book. It also shows a number of ventilators that aren't present in either model or book. The paint scheme doesn't match either. Zinnia will be harder (or easier depending on how you look at it) as I haven't found any images on line and she is not shown in Lamberts book. I'm at the stage of fitting the PE and small details. The PE is binging the model up nicely although the interface with the kit is a bit dodgy in places. The PE 4 inch bandstand sits too high and had to be cut down as did the 2 pounder gun tub. There is going to be a lot of unused PE in the WE set. Some parts are for different standards of Flowers and others are too fiddly to use (4 inch ammunition clips) or are too flat to look good (secondary weapons). As noted elsewhere there is a risk of using PE just because its there. No photos today. I'm writing this at work (Shhh) and can't upload photos. The next decision will be whether to add rigging. Its an easy decision to not do it at 1/700 but at 1/350 I need to think about it, at least in a simplified form. Alan

Mike As I am working through this (slow) build I am finding I rather like the Mirage Flowers. They are more accurate than I initially expected and with some aftermarket bits mixed in they are coming together nicely in my eyes. Work is slowing me down more than I would like unfortunately Alan

I'm thinking its heat effects and the striations are caused by varying metal thicknesses and structural memebers. Its a whole new aircraft for me so I have no idea what the back end looks like inside so this may be totally wrong. Interesting airvraft and I'm looking forward to the build. Alan

A beautiful model Craig. Congratulations. The finish is superb. I'm starting to think about attempting a metal finish after seeing your results. Alan

Looking very nice Jack Alan

A masterful build. That is such a beautiful delicate model. It crosses the line into art. I think I would end up with a bundle of broken wood and string. Absolutely excellent Alan

That looks very nice and neat Jack. Some lovely detail there. This is a new AFV to me so its great to learn about it. Alan

I’m sorry to hear about the loss of a pet. That’s the hardest part of having them. Hopefully you have a stack of great memories. The dio just keeps getting better as the figures get added. The Rifles are really nicely posed. Fit my Sharpe images perfectly. alan

Very nice Jacket. I like the shading on the clothes alan

Looking forward to seeing it

As always the figures look terrific. Beautiful painting sir. It seems to me that there are two areas where figures fail in scenes; probably due to their relative inflexibility. Dead figures don’t slump into that final relaxation and it’s difficult to crowd the figures together. I think you have resolved both issues masterfully. The smoke generator is intriguing Great work Alan

Great work Jack. I know how you feel about the vision. I am using +3.5 lenses and am constantly having to lift them to find stuff on the workbench. Alan

A beautiful model. Well done Dan Alan

Amazing. That’s going to look realistically crowded alan

Came out very well Jack. I really like the base too Alan

It’s lovely to see the figures again. They really are terrific. The smoke is tricky, the breech smoke looks great in the first picture but not so impressive from the other side. I’m sort of following along here because I have sea spray in my future and I think smoke and spray are extremely difficult things to model. It’s probably easier modeling a cannon battery firing than the delicate musket smoke Alan

Thank you Mike. I was a bit nervous of the Mirage kits but they are really quite nice with decent detail. I wish they made a short forecastle version but I suppose it impacts the tooling and costs. I have the four ships that they make, some have PE for railings others not. The White Ensign PE is good for the later bridges and different radar lanterns but quite a bit of it won’t get used. Alan

Thank you very much OC. It sometimes feels like I’m learning all over again. The razor saw is a very useful tool, I’d be breaking the fine parts everywhere without it. Alan