BlackMike Models

Another little belter and something a little different to boot. Duncan B

Looks great Duncan B

This side’s finished. Three to go on the other side. Duncan B

No, the Appo's Pub was the Two "Sewers" although the Landlord called it the Two Brewers! Duncan B

I should be in there, right after the famous "pig's head in the Locker" incident! Duncan B

Am I in that by any chance, under "Spoons Champion 1980" I would think? Duncan B

Great start and don't worry about being slow as I still have builds in progress dating back 10 years! One word of warning with the Eduard kit, the parts for the gun muzzles are not a great fit to the wing parts as you'll have seen on my build. Since I did mine I have found a few different work arounds on the internet involving either using cut off bits of sprue jammed into the inserts to open them up a bit (which seems a bit hit or miss to me) or to glue plastic onto the insides of the wing halves to act as guides for the inserts which is the way I would go if I were doing this kit again. I'd probably glue the inserts to the top half and try to fit spacers to adjust the gap at the bottom half where it's less obvious if not such a good fit. Duncan B

That's a real labour of love on those clear parts. Very impressive results from your filling and polishing. I always manage to screw up the clear parts on my builds, it's become something of a tradition now and I'm (almost) disappointed if I manage to get away without something happening to them, usually dust magically appearing right at the end of the build. Duncan B

The codes and numbers are impressively thin but the decals that have any white on them are horribly thick. Duncan B

Some progress on Ridge Runner. I have blasted the Star and Bar decals with a hair dryer set as hot as I dared. It has helped to get them to conform but they still haven’t smuggled down as nicely as I would have liked, Cartograf quality these are not. Duncan B

All the stencil decals are now on Ridge Runner (I never want to see a tiny stencil decal ever again) and I'll make a start to the national insignia and squadron markings this afternoon. As I already know that no decal setting solution known to man will make the bigger decals settle down I am going to borrow Mrs B's hair drier and see if a blast from that will make any difference to them. As I have plenty of spare decals I can experiment with reasonable confidence (so long as I don't melt the paint or the plastic). Duncan B

Some of my small mistakes

The Girl Guides!

If you don't have a Plan you can't change it. That was always my excuse for changing my mind anyway. Duncan B

My Dad might well have been hiding from this one. He was on the Ocean but hated the Wyverns so whenever they were landing he'd go and 'sunbathe' somewhere else. Apparently they had wooden props and if damaged they would shower the deck with 3ft long javelin like splinters. They also had a nasty habit of blowing people overboard! Duncan B