Mirror Models Diamond T 968A Cargo Truck WIP #4 "Back to work on her"

After a few months away from this project, it is time to start back on it. The house move along with settling and getting unpacked, put my modelling time on the back burner for a while. To ease myself back into the swing, I first did a quickie build of a Dragon 1/144th scale Tomcat followed by finishing off my Airfix Lightning F.2 which happen a few days back. Now my attention has to be aimed back in the Diamond T's direction and finish the write-up on it.

My last posting on the Diamond was towards the end of October just before the move. At that point, the chassis was about 95% done, the engine and cargo body were both finished and ready for painting. Over the last few days, I continued with the chassis by adding the etched fuel tank, locker and step cradle. This is made up from twelve pieces of brass which need bending into shape. The first one I started a couple of weeks back and proved to be difficult to do, so I purchased a bending tool (which I wish I had brought one ages ago) and then I said through the rest of the cradle quickly. Mounting it to the chassis was not exactly easy as there is no proper locating point for it. Truthfully, it would be easier to use the plastic one which comes with the kit then the etched one from the detailing set. There are also some etched braces for the front of the cradle to the chassis, I used the plastic kit braces just to get the front section in position.

Next I started on the fuel tank and locker which sit on the cradle outside the chassis rails. A few naughty words came out of my mouth whilst building these as there is no location pins to align the half sections up. The best way to assemble these is to glue the end panel on to one half and then locate the other half and glue that into position. The filler cap for the fuel tank needs some sanding and filing around the back and sides to get it to fit correctly in the recess on the tank. To finish these off I just need to clean up the joints and mold lines.

Now that the chassis is basically done, I have now progressed onto the cab section. The first bit they tell you to start on is the handbrake and lever assembly, which is bloody fiddly. The first obstacle you need to overcome is removing the parts from the sprue. Because the levers are very thin and delicate, you have to use a thin razor saw/etched saw to carefully cut through the plastic and then patiently clean up the excess plastic from the parts. I almost came close to cutting up the levers and replacing them with some wire. But I battled through and avoided the need to use wire. Once these parts are cleaned up(and hopefully still in one piece), you assemble them onto the cab floor followed by the seat bases and the rear wall of the cab. The seat bases and backs are meant to be added next, but I will add them after the cab interior has been painted and before the roof is added.

To finish this post, I will just show a little mistake the manufacturer had done when they made the tooling up. On the bulkhead part, the steering column goes through the floor and mounts to the inside of the chassis rail. But, and this is a big but, someone forgot to put the hole into the floor when they made the tooling. From what I can see from the instructions, the column goes through the floor between the clutch and brake pedals. There is no marks or even a pin hole to indicate where to column exits the cab interior. I know of a Diamond T wrecker about twenty miles from here and if they allow me, I will have a look to confirm the location of the hole.

So, that is all for tonight on this project and I will post another update on this build in a few days time once there is some more progress on the cab. Whilst we are talking about projects, to fill my down time at work, I have been working on the Airfix Club's 1/48th scale Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3/E-7 kit in RAF and Japanese markings which came with my membership a couple of years back. I will take some photos to post on here in the next couple of days.

EE Lightning F.2A Finished

Well, my first build of the year and the first proper build in the new house. This was originally started before we moved, but all that had been done was the cockpit and air intake section. Work really only started once we were settled in the new house and my workshop was almost set up.

Onto the Lightning. This is one of the new tooled Airfix kits which came out a couple of years ago now. I can say that this is a lovely kit to build and there was only a couple of little fitment issues concerning the air intake sitting in the nose section and the belly sections to the fuselage. Otherwise, the kit is a great one to build. It came with two scheme options, one was the silver with blue spine and tail of No.92 Squadron in based in Germany in August 1972. The other in green with silver underside of No.19 Squadron also based in Germany in late 1974. As most of the ones I have seen built so far have been in the silver and blue scheme, I opted for No.19 Squadron scheme.

For the paint, I used Mr Hobby silver on the underside and Xtracrylix XA1001 RAF Dark Green, with other colours from various manufacturers. Once all of the decals were done, the silver areas got a couple coats of gloss clear and the green had satin clear to seal the decals. I did some subtle weathering using some washes to bring out a little of the detail on the underside, undercarriage bays and cockpit areas. Here are a few photos I took on my phone tonight of the finished model.

Also At Huddersfield! A great Typhoon

Also at the Huddersfield show, was this very fine example of Airfix's 1/24th scale Hawker Typhoon. Out of all the built ones I have seen in person, this has been the best so far and should have been entered into the competition at the show. I can only hope my one comes up to this standard when I get around to building it.

Canberra's At Huddersfield

As a few of my friends know, I do have a little thing about Canberra's. On this Sunday just gone, I made my first visit to the Huddersfield Model Show and I came across a few of these birds and a couple of stands, one being the Canberra SIG stand. So I just couldn't resist taking a few photos of them and would like to share them on here.

Enjoy

EE Lightning F.2A WIP#2

I am slowly getting there. Finally the decals on the fuselage were finished last night and now I am giving the Lightning a few coats of clear to seal them. The silver areas underneath are having some gloss clear over them whilst the green will be receiving a couple of satin coats. Next the undercarriage bays will be painted with some Aluminium paint along with the gear, air-brake openings, wheels and inner surfaces of the doors. If I am lucky, this bird might be finished for next weekend and then I can get back to working on the Diamond T and finish the write up on that project for the magazine. 

So, back to clearing this model and painting the undercarriage, etc.

EE Lightning F.2A WIP#1

I think most aircraft model makers have a love of certain aircraft, well I do. These aircraft for me are the P-51 Mustang's, EE Canberra's, Spitfire's and EE Lightnings. In my stockpile of kits, I have several examples of these aircraft in a few different scales.

This project is the recent tooled Airfix 1/72nd scale Lightning F.2A, which is a lovely kit to build (so far). This has gone together without any major problems, the only one I have had with it is the fitting of the air intake into the fuselage nose. The intake needed a little sanding to be done so it would sit inside the nose without it pushing the fuselage halves apart. A few other parts needed a little sanding down to get a better fitment, but this will be found on a lot of kits, no matter what the age of the tooling.

I lacked to take any photos of the building proceed prior to these one, I just blame it on getting back into the swing of things after the house move and still doing the finishing touches to my new modelling room. Plus my modelling mojo is not full back on form yet to.

So, the story so far on the Lightning. The fuselage has been built up to painting stage with the pilot's seat left out until final assembly. Originally, I was going to us Alclad paints for the metal finish on the lower half of the fuselage, but decided to go with Mr Hobby's Silver instead. The green is Xtracrylix XA1001 RAF Dark Green then the model had a couple of coats of Johnsons Klear in preparation for the decals. This is the stage I am at now, adding the decals, which there is quite a few when you include the stencils that went on these aircraft. So that's where I am now with this project and I will update as it proceeds.