"Well, don't worry, Rick! It wouldn't have worked anyway!Everything was varnished a few weeks back and then... To put it mildly, I wasn't happy. You see, there's some odd... watermarks? underneath the varnish where the Pledge was used on the Lancasters around the wing walkway stencilling and I could see them quite clearly. Worse was to follow. There was tape residue on the spine of the Lancastrian that turned yellow with age and the varnish highlighted it. The decals on the Shackleton hadn't quite settled down due to the rivets, and there was also some heavy silvering on the Lancastrian. Quite frankly, I was disgusted with my own ineptitude and left all three to rot.
Willie convinced me that it wasn't too bad, but still I held back having lost any enthusiasm for finishing them. But then I dug out a sanding block and started carefully sanding off the tape residue on the Lancastrian. Managed to get rid of it so perhaps this can be finished?
Short answer - yes. She still needs a few aerials, the pilot's seat needs some work and the canopy bedding down but other than that she's done. One down, two to go.
The B.VI Special. Wheels on, plus doors. Need a new tailwheel as it's vanished, probably stolen for something else. Props done, albeit needle rather than paddle - I AM NOT using the ones in the Airfix kit as they are cack. Just the canopy and the tail turret and that's done.
Which just leaves the Shackleton AEW3... But I'm really not feeling anything for this Shackleton any more, other than I want it done so I can try and finish something else. There's really very little that needs doing but I just can't work up any sort of enthusiasm for it. I don't want to abandon it so close to the finish line - especially with a show looming to display it - but I have little feeling of anything for it.
Which brings me to the silver Lancaster. You see, I'm thinking about something else for it's markings, although I'm still wedded to the far east. The RAF operated Lincolns in NMF finish, along with the RAAF and I was toying with a Lancaster in that scheme and with Type D markings bombing the Mau Mau or Malayan communists - maybe the far east Lancs were kept out there for colonial policing, with the Lincolns kept in Europe? Means having to do another Lancaster or two, but I do have a considerable stash of them that I'd like to either use or dispose of.
Looking in a box that's holding a long stalled B-29 - I have all the bits there and it's possibly going to be a 9 Sqn example in the far east carrying a pair of Tallboys - I find a pair of long stalled Hurricanes. Both are painted, one part decalled as an RAAF machine. What was I going to do the other one as? It's in a desert scheme, although Dark Green rather than Dark Earth. I'm leaning towards a Lebanese machine, simply because I have some decals kicking about and I want to use them up. A donated ex-6 Sqn machine, although it's a IIc rather than a IV? Persian perhaps? Still, the pair can be finished relatively quickly as bothe the props and wheels are already done.
So, what next after all this? Well, there's a trio of Beaufighters that I'd liked masked and done, a pair of desert Blenheims and then there's a few Tempests, although they'll fit into another whiffed 607 Sqn timeline but more probably part of my alternate 6 Sqn lineup.
Quite a dance on the revolving carousel, but that's par for the course. Just wish I had more focus.
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