Visiting the South Warwickshire Electric Flyers

A work trip meant I couldn't attend the L&WMRS open day, but my Dad performed his usual "Meet and Greet" duties - which gave him the chance to welcome some people from the flying club on the same farm as us. 

It turned out that they had a family camping weekend, so the next day, we nipped down to see what was happening. 

On arrival, we were greeted and shown around. The members couldn't have been more welcoming and eagerly showed us the aircraft, and fascinating technology inside them It seems that you can have a 'plane that can automatically compensate for wind buffeting, and even fly itself back by GPS if it gets out of range. Amazing stuff. 

In the clubhouse were a huge number of models. Presuamably because there were several tents-worth of families for the weekend. 

The highlight was being able to try some goggles that provided a first person perspective from a 'plane in the air. While one memeber flew, using his goggles, I watched through a second pair. It was absolutely amazing!

Now, I've no desire to have a go at flying (OK, gliders appeal a little) but if it's your bag, I can recomend the South Warwickshire Flyers. A really freindly bunch. More details on this website.

Saturday Film Club: Building an Albatros D5 aeroplane

I've had a go at building a balsa and dope kit in the past, and it sort of worked OK, but the idea of filming the process in stop-motion while assembling the parts is beyond my skillset. Amazing to watch though.

Larger scale aircraft 2022 - you do NOT need a 'plane!

I couldn't stay long at the Berlingo event mentioned yesterday, because I wanted to pack another in on the same day. This time the static display by the Large Model Association, just down the road at the motor museum, Gaydon. 

As usual, the halls were full of massive model aircraft, and the quality, if not quantity, was a good as ever. Pride of place (just) had to go to the Jet Provost seen above. A proper scale model that would be impressive enough on it's own, but this is a flying model. You'd a be a brave pilot to take it up in the air though, as at some point, you have to aim it at the gound for a landing. 

You might think this is an expensive hobby to get in to, but with a Bever high-wing monoplane ARTF kit coming in at under £300, it's not too bad. Bargain of the day though, had to be this Flying Fortress. 

 

Offers around £6500. That's a lot of aeroplane for your money. A lot of aeroplane that flies, and has the appropriate certification from the CAA. Some paint and detailing is "all" that would be required. I wasn't tempted, don't do military stuff, but I would understand anyone else being. 

More photos over on Flickr.

Warehouse Wednesday: Airport control tower

Pulling into the car park at the Bicester Heritage Centre for the G1MRA 75th birthday celebrations, and dodging a Tiger Moth that was being pushed across the road, was, "That's a very modelable control tower". 

There's a definite hint of the Airfix version about it, even though it looks completely different. 

The heritage centre is based on a preserved airfield - you can read the full story on their website. It's still operational, there were gliders being towed skyward as I watched.

Obvioulsy this isn't going to be much use to railway modellers, but if you fancied a corner of airfield on your layout, you could do worse than take a proper look at Bicester. As well as the control tower, there are some cracking hangers.

C-17 Globemaster III Transporter

 

My Dad has been suffering the same loss of modelling mojo recently that I and a lot of others have. In an effort to help, I treated him to a Meng caricature plastic kit for the C-17 Globemaster III transporter. 

I love these cartoon-like Meng kits having built HMS Hood and Santa Tank in the past. 

No glue is required for assembly - my Dad was impressed with the way all the parts pushed together, but found you needed three hands to juggle the fuselage halves and glazing. Apart from that, it was an easy, and pleasent build. 

Unlike the real plane, the model isn't massive - 13.5cm long and wide. 

Painting duties were passed to me, and I left the self-coloured plastic body along, just highlighting the tyres with Revell No.9 and the ait intakes with Humbrol No.69. 

Both transfers and stickers are provided, the later being my choice as they are very thin. I'm not sure I'd have done much better with waterslide transfers, so those go in the transfer box for future use. 

It seems to have worked, there are a couple of Dad projects to post since this kit was finished. Result!

Cosford Large Aircraft 2019 - Rain stops plane

The weather forecast promised cloudy skies. The previous weekends and even days running up to the event predicted sunshine and sun-hats. 

As it was, by lunchtime, the rain was coming down and sensibly, the aircraft were covered up.  

The only silver lining was that the outside swapmeet stand was also a see of tarpaulins, preventing me being tempted by the rare and well-priced model boat kit if it hadn't sold as we headed back to the car. 

Before this though, there had been some superb flying with amazing aerobatics and aircraft you simply can't see full-size anymore. 

Check out my gallery on Flickr.

Saturday Film Club: Building a Flying Fortress

THIS sort of thing is why I think I'm a rubbish modeller. Tom Grigat not only makes a superb job of building an Airfix kit, and produces a superb and compelling film showing the process. A joy to watch with some interesting techniques shown along the way. I wish I had those skills!

Large scale model aircraft 2018

It takes a special kind of person to start building an 18ft wingspan Lancaster bomber - and an even more special one to finish it. At the show, only half a wing was on display, but the workmanship was superb. The same could be said for the 12ft long wing for a Catalina, complete with some interesting and clever linkages.

While the number and quality of exhibits at the LMA show was as good as ever, the number of traders has fallen dramatically over the years. Most were in a single room when they would spill over into two. OK, I'm only looking for wood and a few radio bits, but it's a bit of a surprise. Are there many other shows, other then Cosford, to sell at? We aren't talking about toy trains with a plethora of events every weekend after all.

One surprise was on the Nexus stand. In pure value of money terms, how can model railways compete with this RTF aeroplane?  54 inch wingspan and more clever technology than you can shake a control stick at for less than the price of a big OO gauge loco? Only storage considerations stopped me being seriously tempted!

More photos on Flickr.

Manx Aviation and military musem

Down beside Ronaldsway airport, is the Manx Aviation and Military Museum.  

Housed in a couple of large and interconnected Nissen huts, at first glance the place doesn't look that big, but once inside, Tardis-like, there's loads to see. 

Now, I'll admit that military stuff leaves me cold. Worse, there is a lot of WW1 detail and that I really don't like. The number of memorial plaques in cabinets attests to the pointless slaughter of this conflict and all the time I'm thinking that if I'd been born a hundred years ago, that would have been me. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but admiration for those involved at the sharp end and the exhibits are well staged. It's just that I feel uncomfortable. 

Elsewhere, there is a nice civil airlines display which appealed far more as my first flight was with  Manx Airlines in the days when you got fed in the 45-minute flight. They cover other airlines that have served the island too. 

Some of the display is given over to RAF training, the north of the island carried out a lot of this as the area was considered safe from German aircraft. Not safe for the crews themselves though as the first thing you see is a map showing crash sights. I know how low the cloud can get and sadly a lot of pilots didn't find out about the mountains until the bumped into them. 

In one section there is a restored Bofors gun on its carrier and the information on its history and restoration is interesting and impressive. 

Overall, if military stuff is your bag, then this is an excellent museum and well worth a visit. It's free to go in and even has a shop selling a really wide range of aircraft plastic kits. 

Details from the Visit Isle of Man website. 

Large Model Aircraft show 2017

As ever, the static Large Model Aircraft show was home to superb workmanship in wood. There seemed to be a larger number of part-finished models on show this year, which bodes well for next years flying season.

I enjoy seeing built but uncovered models. The structure is fascinating and often strangely beautiful. Laser cutting has revolutionised this hobby, with most of the basic airframes being made this way. Producing lots of identical, or at least graduated slices of a wing is much easier when a computer is doing the cutting. That's not to say there is no skill involved. Quite the opposite. Once assembled, the frame has to be covered, often in wood and film, then fitted out with both power and radio equipment. Then they models have to be finished, and the standard of this is superb. Finally, after CAA approval, the model has to be pointed into the sky.

Prototypes a plenty were on show. The Skyfarmer and Cessna Skymasters are odd-ball choices but so much more interesting than WW2 planes. Or at least, the lover of the unusual anyway!

Lots more pictures on Flickr. 

Large Scale Model Aircraft, Gaydon, 2016

This show doesn't disapoint. Organised by the Large Model Association, as the escalator delivers you to the upper floor, the first model on show is a quarter scale Argentinian Pucara. THAT is a large scale model.

Rather like last weeks model engineering show, this was a hall full of amazing models that I can admire but not copy. Well, I suppose I could but not without a lot of practise and hard work.

One interesting sight, not actually on display, was a 3D printed fuselage being carried around by one of the traders.

The model is (paid for) downloadable and designed to be printed in several parts on a home printer. Problems have been encountered getting flat surfaces properly flat, hence the lack of wings. The owner went to to explain the economics of printing for large scale models - basically it costs a fortune.

Talking of 3D printing, there is a nice range of pilots from Real Model Pilots. I couldn't resist a photos of these as haloween approaches.They make "proper" ones too, all amazingly light. 

And I did make a purchase, but I'll show you that tomorrow...

Most of the modesl were far more traditionally made. Loads of blasa wood and lite ply, all covered with fibreglass and vinyl for the most superb "paint" finishes. 

Cake was lemon, and just sligthly too tall for easy eating, but I managed anyway. 

Head over to Flickr for my photos, including some bonus motor cars at no extra cost. 

ead over to Flickr for my photos, including some bonus motor cars at no extra cost. 

Large Model Flyers, Cosford 2015

The rain as we drove up the M6 didn't bode well for the day, but then the M6 is always grim anyway. By the time we made it to Cosford and walked over from the car parking area - a bit of hike this year thanks to a change in the event's layout - the sun was breaking through and apart from a warm breeze, the day was perfect.

Almost immediately, there were 2 and then 3 Lancaster bombers in the air. Each has a 17 foot wingspan and according to one of the pilots we chatted to later, took 3 years to build. A year to get the basics made, another year for detailing and a final year for CAA approval.

A couple of aerobatic displays were very impressive. Quite how you make an aeroplane fly this was is a mystery. One move, called "the harrier", involved the plane descending vertically but with the plane horizontal. Another seemed to have the plane flying forward so slowly you could hardly see it move. My understanding of physics is that at this point the plane should have all the flying properties of a brick, but it seems not.

Blustery conditions gave the problems problems. A large model of a Lightning was within a couple of feet of touchdown after an impressive display when it was suddenly flying perpendicular to the runway for a second - real heart in mouth stuff that thankfully turned out well due to the skill of the pilot. Fortunately, wind doesn't affect these large models as much as smaller ones. For the most part, everything seemed to go very well.

One of the nice things about this show is I can wander around the trade without feeling the urge to splash out on a kit. Fascinating as this stuff is, I'm happy just to watch other people flying. Mind you, I did come away with 20 quids worth of superglue (it's cheaper here than train shows), some big sheets of Depron and a slab of blue foam. No idea what I'll do with these but they were so cheap, and the car wasn't that far away...

Photos of big model aircraft on Flickr.

G-ACSS

How's this for coincidence. Just as I'm messing around with the Comet paintwork, in Smiffs is a magazine with the very aeroplane on the front cover. Of course I had to buy a copy - not something toy train buffs normally do (Buy a non-model railway magazine, are you mad? There is no world beyond the train set.) but I like to look beyond the hobby occasionally. Beside, my Dad likes to have a read and he's to stingy to buy a copy for himself. I was tempted to wrap it up fro Christmas.

Finishing touches include some glazing bars drawn the on the canopy using a Bob Moore lining pen. They aren't perfect but then the clear plastic part is a bit wobbly itself. The horizontals are straight thanks to my trusty ruler, even if not in the perfect position. Verticals are short and done by eye as I couldn't be bothered to wait for the other lines to dry.

Having said this, the pen worked perfectly, showing how good it is with gloss paint.

Finally, the canopy was stuck in place with canopy glue and the model pronounced finished. Were the panel lines more pronounced, I'd liked to have had a go at a little weathering, although the prototype always looked pretty clean.

Talking of the prototype, after success in the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race, the aeroplane enjoyed a slightly chequered career mostly involving the undercarriage several times. Fortunately, it can now be seen as part of the Shuttleworth Collection.

One interesting story is that in 1938, the owner was contacted by a Jewish group with a well thought out plan to use the plane to bomb Hitler during a ceremonial parade in Berlin. A £1million price was agreed but then pilot Coulson decided against it for fear of what the British Secret service would have done once they worked out who had carried out the deed. One owners how history would have changed if he hadn't.

Red paint - Part 2

OK, so the acrylic paint isn't working for me. Not wanting to be defeated by a plastic pot of pigment, it's time to stop messing around and use proper style paint - enamel.

 

 

First step, strip off the blobby mess. A wash with Precision Paints Superstrip sorted this out. The acrylic hadn't stuck to the primer at all and came off in sheets. The stripper works well and after straining, has been returned to the bottle for use again.

 

 

 

After a wash down and an overnight dry, the gloss red was sprayed on. Thinned with white spirit, it worked as well as enamel does, the result being a nice shiny aircraft. OK, it took many hours to dry and needed to be covered up while doing this to dodge dust but at least it covered easily.

 

 Life would have been even easier if the airbrush hadn't still been suffering the effects of the old paint. How the stuff can be so useless but dry to the consistency of steel inside the tiny bits of spraygun I don't know.

 

Anyway, now I have a gloss red 'plane. It's not perfectly smooth, but after Christmas, when the paint is properly hard, I'll try out that new buffer block I bought for this sort of job.

Red paint - Part 1

While the kit hasn't gone together perfectly, I'm not too fussed about this. After all, it cost very little and is primarily a painting challenge for me. I've no idea what to do with the finished model, if it gets that far, but for the moment I press on.

 

First up, a coat of white primer sprayed on and left to dry. This shows up a few niggles but the model actually looks better than I thought it might. The paint handle - a clip gripping the pilots necks - seems to work well as long as I hold it with a gloved hand.

 

My plan is to spray the 'plane with red Humbrol acrylic. I've recently completed a magazine project using the companies rail colours and was very pleased with the results and ease of use. They dried incredibly matt but with a nice finish. Having never used gloss acrylic before, I reckon it's worth a punt. At the very least, the fast drying times should reduce the amount of muck that will find its way in to the surface.

 

My first attempt with acrylic saw me thin the paint with normal water. There it worked fine but with gloss - hopeless. Either the paint won't sit on the surface or the stuff is too thick to come out of the airbrush for more than few seconds. Building up any sort of depth of colour isn't going to happen so it's time for a re-think.  

 

 

Luckily, I have the proper thinners so I clean everything up and try again. The results are a tiny amount better but still absolutely rubbish. The paint bobbles on the surface or runs around like water. When I stop, it sets in the airbrush meaning I spend as long cleaning the thing out as I do spraying.

 

By the time I give up, my spraybooth looks like an abattoir. The airbrush is solid with paint (all the bits now resting in a bath of cellulose thinners) and the model looks hopeless. Where the red has a bit of depth, it's IS shiny but I'm pretty certain no matter how much paint I put on, it isn't going to get any better.

 

I'm sure this is a lack of skill on my part, but I wonder how I can spray matt colours perfectly and gloss so badly. More pressingly, I now have to work out how to get the paint off the model and have another go with some proper enamel paint. Or just chuck it in the bin and do something else.



De Havilland Comet paint test

 

So, I'm browsing the Airfix "Black Friday" sale and spot this rather nice looking aircraft for under 3 quid in the selection. Well, I'm buying one or two other bits so I add it to the basket.

 

While I have a million other "proper" projects to finish, I fancy this as a bit of a quickie and a useful test. You see, this 'plane needs to be painted properly. Gloss red. With perfectly applied transfers. I'm not sure if I can do this but I would like to try. Anyway, it's a break from the soldering.

 

First up, stick the kit together. If I'm honest, I though this would be a quick job. I hadn't counted on an old kit with terrible part fit and hardly any locating tabs. Nothing between the two halves of the fuselage anyway.

 

Lashings of liquid plastic glue later (apply, push the joint hard together so a little plastic oozes out) and I've done it. The wing tabs had to be trimmed to move the leading edge somewhere near where it should be. One tail fin was a lot higher than the other but making the locating slot deeper sorted this with filler covering up the badness. Air intakes on the front of the engine nacelles are little more than ragged holes but I tidy these up a bit and will live with them.

 



 

Annoyingly (to me) you can only build the model with the landing gear down. I quite fancied an in-flight version like the box top shows but then I suppose there isn't a stand supplied so that wouldn't work either.

Large Model Association 2014

Off to Gaydon last weekend where the builders of huge model aircraft were showing the results of their labours.

While I still don't have any idea what makes someone get up in the morning and decide that their life won't be complete without building a half sized Gypsy Moth, I can still appreciate the workmanship. It's also ineteresting to see what the trade has on offer. Last year I funded the cost of my entry with a review of a laser-cut servo mount...

Anyway, one of the highlights was the selection of 3D printet pilots from RealModelPilots. These look amazing and can be sculpted (in CAD) so you can fly your own aeroplane. From a practical point of view, since they are printed in ABS, the models are tough but very light.

If you are willing to sacrifice strength for weight, rather than a honeycombe interiror, you can have your miniture hollow. I had a look and to be honest, the hollow versions is pretty strong so I can't see why you'd add extra internal structure. If you need that strngth to survive a crash landing, a damaged pilot is likely to be the least of your worries.

Elsewhere, I was chatting to a man building a 1/3 scale South America plane. He showed a material made by sandwiching balsa sheet either side of a hard, but light, solid foam sourced from the Formula 1 world.

Tests for the CAA (big models have to be certified) have proved it's strong enough for construction of flying items and I wondered if it would work for baseboards. Strength looks fine but I suspect the cost might rule it out.

All-in-all, very interesting as usual. I've come away with some interesting goodies, including a new (to me) material I'm very excitied about and will devote a blog post to in a few days.

In the meantime, go look at the gallery on Flickr.

Quickbuild Quick build

Years ago, I used to look forward to a Christmas addition to my extensive Lego collection. Sometimes the larger and more complicated models that Santa would bring were a bit much for my limited skills and my Dad would be allowed to help. Somewhere we have a black & white photo of him puzzling over the construction of an oil rig.

Anyway, I no longer get Lego, something I'm a little sad about, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be some brick building fun over the festive season. Early last year, Airfix introduced their Quickbuild range of models. These look suspiciously Lego-like, probably due to the Danish company losing a patent case some time ago, resulting in a rash of lookielikey products which are cheaper but claim compatibility with the original brand.

So, I thought it would be fun to buy my Dad a plastic kit as a present and settled on the Spitfire from the range. I know he has a stash of unbuilt plastic kits so instead of a "proper" kit to add to this, something different that he had no excuse to finish seemed more fun.

Looking in the box, the components are Lego like. A few are almost identical copies. Other are very specific to this model. To avoid the need for paint, the parts are weird wavy shapes to correspond with the camouflage markings.

Construction wasn't too taxing for a 72 year old I'm told and he soon had a descent sized model of the WW2 classic. Stickers for the RAF markings completed the model. Should you be somewhat younger then there is as much play value in this as there would be in a diecast model but here to you get the fun of building it first.

OK, so this isn't the most detailed model in the world but I bet a few IPMS members will have a tinker with them as the shape doesn't look bad. I bet there is fun to be had if you glue the bits together, apply some filler and paint the result.

Is Quick-build the future? Of course not. But if you look at the range, it is a good starting point and this isn't the first time Airfix have dabbled with blocks either - anyone remember Betta Builda ?

Also, the Quick-build system has made its way into the Scalextric range with the Demolition Derby set and also a micro version in this years range. How long before we get something in the railway range?

P-51 Mustang egg plane

Here's an odd concept - Hasegawa's Egg Planes. Cartoon versions of real aeroplanes that are sort of egg shaped. A bit of Manga cartoon styling is thrown into the mix with the big eyed lady pilots. They are the sort of thing you either love or hate.

I've seen them in the past and though they look like a bit of fun. Finally I've got around to building one.

This isn't a daft project, well not completely, it's a way to try different model making techniques on a project that doesn't really matter. In this case, I'm going to experiment with some painting ideas.

Anyway, the model I picked is the P-51 Mustang. The model is a pretty standard plastic aircraft kit - all the bits are on sprues, you assemble the two halves of the fuselage and then stick the wings on. So far, so Airfix.

The clear canopy is large and will allow a clear view of the nicely detailed pilot. There's not detail in the cockpit apart from a decal showing dials but then it's not a real plane...

Part fit is good. The white blob of filler in front of the cockpit is me being over enthusiastic with the knife removing the bits from the sprue. The instructions are clear but I still managed to fit the undercarriage back to front. I'm sure no one will notice though.

Building Skipper Riley

It's cartoon aeroplanes week here at Phil's Workbench!

We start with the Zvezda kit for "Skipper Riley" - a character from the Disney film "Planes". Obviously, the model is based on a US Navy Cosair. Characters based on transport vehicles, I wonder where they got that idea from?

Anyway, on the box it is described as "My First Model Kit" and suitable for ages 7 and upward. The scale is even marked as 1:100. Therefore, my tester was my Dad who is ten times the recommended age but does have a 3mm:1foot scale model railway at the correct scale.

In the box, all the parts are supplied on self coloured plastic sprues. Your builder will need to remove these with a knife or pair of clippers. At 7, under adult supervision, a craft knife shouldn't be too scary a concept. You learn how not to cut yourself pretty quickly after all.

Assembly doesn't require glue, or at least not for the main parts. My tester reports that a couple of the beige parts needed a little trimming for a good fit. He used a knife but sandpaper would work just as well. The tiny landing gear parts didn't stay put when pushed in place so he used some Humbrol plastic cement to hold them.

Instead of transfers, the model is decorated with stickers. These look great but the glue on them grabs quickly so make sure they are placed in the correct spot first time as you won't get them off again.

Quickly buildable into a good looking model, if you have a fan of the film, this would make an excellent introduction to plastic kit modelling. They will learn some hand/eye co-ordination and motor skills and get a descent toy as a result. The finished model has a 14cm wingspan so a complete fleet won't take up huge amounts of space. I know you can buy ready-made versions of the same planes but where's the fun in that?

 

Planes kits at Amazon