#cold war jets

[nocternalrandomness]

Jason Somes in his crimson MiG over the Pacific Coast (Photo by Twoeleven Aviation)

[garrand-models]

Hunting Percival Jet Provost T.4

No.79 Squadron, No.1 Tactical Weapons Unit, RAF Chivenor, Devon, 1982.

[kitsandbits]

SR Struggles! (Entirely of my own making)

Sometimes kit's just do not want to be built, at least that's the feeling I am starting to get with this SR-71. After slipping with the scribe on my first attempt at reinstating the detail I lost during sanding, I had to fix the damage. So I filled and sanded the area a couple of nights ago and yesterday went to re-scribe the lines again.

I know it's been a while since I was building regularly but I really should have avoided the schoolboy errors that were to befall me, how I did not see this coming I don't know.

This is where the problems started. Error number 1: I had forgotten to de-tac the Dymo tape I use as a guide when scribing!

So my process when scribing is usually to use the edge of Dymo embossed label tape as a guide for the scribe line. I usually lay the tape and just do a really light line first, peel part of the Dymo tape back to check the line is positioned correctly and then lay the tape back down and go over the line a couple of times. I only peel part of the tape back so that I can lay it back down in exactly the same position.

Unfortunately what happened was I tried to peel the tape back to check the initial light scribe and because it hadn't been de-tac'd it managed to pull a part of the primer and filler I had previously applied to the panel right off with the part of the tape I lifted.

What I should of done then is lay the tape back down to continue with the scribing then worry about fixing the panel after this was done... but again I didn't do that!

Instead of doing that though error number 2 came along as panic and frustration set in and  I took off the Dymo tape and out came the sanding sticks, fillers etc as I proceed to fix the panel.

What this then meant was today I had to try and re align the new piece of nicely de-tac'd Dymo tape to the line I had previously scribed which I could now barely see due to the remedial work. True to form I got the alignment wrong as you can see in the picture below and made a mess of the panel line for the 2nd time!

So the filler and sanding sticks are going to need to come out again, unfortunately a little of the previous fill has also chipped away during the failed scribe due to the 2 attempts not quite lining up so that will need tidied up too.

For now though I think it's time to take a breather and break out the Airfix Hawk as I don't want frustration to set in. Oh and if your wondering why the canopy frames look so poorly fitted its because they haven't actually been worked on yet. I just clipped them off the sprue and blu-tac'd them in place to protect the cockpit interior during prime and paint.

[nocternalrandomness]

The backbone of the Cold War nuclear deterrent

[nocternalrandomness]

Saab Viggen demoing during the 2023 Belgian Air Force Days at Kleine-Brogel Air Base

[nocternalrandomness]

A Hawker Hunter joins up with a Canberra for a few photo passes at the 2014 Dunsfold Air Show

[nocternalrandomness]

Hawker Hunter T.7 seen in it's original RAF paint at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome in 2013

[nocternalrandomness]

Lightnings break over Binbrook - 1984