Royal Australian Air Force Centenary Group Build

Ooh, looks good and they have a Republic Lancer too… and I still have one more Frog Vengeance to do at some point…

In the meantime, I am getting through the Hawk to keep me amused. Got the preshading done, then the light grey and masked for the darker.

Did a first pass of the darker, started taking the masking off, and realised the colour was not right. So did a light overspray of a darker bluer grey, trying to leave as much mottle as possible.

Mmmmmm

Lostagain. thats shaping up nicely… I dont know about vegemite ?

Piers and Ferg, correct me if I’m wrong here…

It’s an Aussie sandwich spread. It has an odd tangy salty taste. Seems most non-Aussies don’t like the taste much. I saw some video years ago with a bunch of Yanks, Brits, Canadians, and two women from Brazil tasting the stuff and going YUCK! I wanted to try it so I ordered a small jar. It’s a little odd but I kinda like it.

Piers: Great job there on the pre-shading and camo. She’s coming out great!

Gamera: You are right on the money mate and believe it or not the Poms have a similar product called Marmite. They are both made from yeast extracts. I’ll tell you that it’s not as good as Vegemite, they will tell you that it’s better. But then they tell all sorts of tall stories about their cricket prowess too.

Piers: The Hawk is really coming along mate. The masking looks a bit fiddly though.

Dodgy:Does vegemite have the same sort of advertising campaigns we get for Marmite, playing up it’s acquired taste?

Piers: The Hawk’s looking good.

No updates from me for a bit, I’m afraid, as I’m in the middle of a stalled house move and everything’s in storage (the Mosquito is wrapped in about mile of bubble wrap). However, I did get a chance to visit the 1:1 scale night fighter variant at East Kirkby last week, so I have acquired some more reference photos.

Bish talked a bit about Marmite, that I haven’t tried yet though.

Darren: Good luck, moving is a LOT of work…

Nah mate. Our ad campaigns are more along the line of ‘you’re missing out if you don’t eat it’. We also have a lovely little jingle that goes back to the 30’s or 40’s, “We’re happy litle Vegemites as bright as bright can be, because we love our vegemite, we all ejoy our vegemite, for breakfast, lunch and tea.”

You grow up with it, so it’s almost un-Australian if you don’t eat it.

Good luck with the house move mate. The next home I buy is going to be six foot long x 2 foot high with no windows. Bugger ever moving again.

Darren, moving yeah that would not be fun. Having got ourselves set up, hopefully in a good few decades I will follow Ferg’s philosophy.

Had to look on the map for East Kirkby - not too far from where we lived in the 90’s, Wakefield area. Looking back, I did not get to enough of the museums. Got to Duxford once, and the Farnborough airshow.

DSC_1400 by Patrick Nevin, on Flickr

Had to shim the forward underside fuselage (stitch in time stuff.) Horizontal tail is for illustration only - am working the tail cone and needed a reference. But to show some progress.

Oh that looks good Patrick, she’s coming right along!

Moving along there nicely Patrick. Looking forward to see the scheme.

Looking good Patrick. Can’t wait to see more.

So I thought I would have more to show you at this point but…

Got started on the decaling for the Hawk.

Thought it was going well until the rear of the plane - the decal just disappeared (There is an aircraft serial under the slime light, A27-28)

So now I can either repaint the light grey or print some replacement decals. And I would be using a whole sheet of decal paper, the printer has just crapped itself and I am impatient so repaint it is.

So before when i thought the darker grey was too light, turns out the lighter grey was too dark…

Ah mate, that’s unlucky. The nose decals look great, though, but I doubt that’s much in the way of consolation.

Hope the recovery process isn’t too painful.

Darren

Oh wow yeah the national insignia and slime lights look just fine.

I’m not sure what I’d do. I ended up sandwiching an extra layer over mine where they acted up. But they’re larger and simpler than that.

Gamera. many thanks.

Patrick. Thats some fine work.

lostagain. Wow nice camo and decals too!

I painted ID band and leading edge of wings. I gave a light coat of Tamiya gloss clear for decals, now some drying time listening to some AC/DC.

Ohhhhhhhh cool Nick that really looks good!!! [Y]

Piers: Sorry to hear about the decal issue mate, but I’m sure you will overcome!

Nick: that Spit is looking sweet. I’m still filing, sanding, filing, sanding…

Patrick: I love the look of your flying barrel. Think I might have to invest in one.

Nick, that is looking fantastic, great work.

Ferg, have you had to get the angle grinder out yet?

Gamera. Many thanks.

Dodgy. Thank you- I hear you on the snding.

Lostagain. Thanks I appreciate it.

Latest pics with all the decals on some clean up and another gloss coat.