What's on the workbench!

[McColm]

Tuesday 30th June 2026

Two aircraft have taken their last flights are the BAe Harrier which served with the US Marines and the Grumman C-2A Greyhound US Navy.

On the workbench around the clutter are the five builds for the Operation Downfall Group Build. They now have decals taken from various kits. I know that I should have painted certain areas before applying the decals but this adds a bit of character to the builds and the weathering effect or chemical reactions look realistic.
Tiger Force aircraft had extra aerials but they are a bit fiddley, I'll leave them alone. A little bit of paint with a brush and they should be ready for photos.

Definitely need to start a decal collection of roundels and buy a few more shelving units.
Through the rummaging I have come across a few kits that I'd forgotten about, candidates for the One Week GB.

[McColm]

Thursday 2nd July 2026

I finished four 1/72 builds for Operation Downfall, in hindsight they could have been better but the experience has taught me that if I use filler/putty then I need to use wet & dry papers before painting as the imperfections will show once I start painting.
Secondly buy more paint than is needed, yes the paint can be thinned out but a good undercoat or primer is needed.
Third, good brushes are essential and stock up on the decals.

Tamiya acrylic paint pots do tend to smell once opened and can dry your eyes whilst the paint is applied with a hairy brush even if the windows are open. Although the rattle can and the paint pots are marked up with the same colour they can be a different shade as I found out on the Douglas Gremlin GRA.1.

Still got one build to finish, the Avro Tauton C.1, this looks like a Pacific colour scheme as worn by US Navy aircraft but it wasn't intentional just ran out of acrylic paint and having to use up the leftovers.

Due to the lack of shifts I will be raiding my stash for future builds and probably recycling a few of the started ones. Having seen the Boeing Model 495 I'm sure that I can build my own version. Another concept was to stretch the fuselage of the C-97 and give it longer wings with turboprop engines.

[McColm]

Saturday 4th July 2026

All my builds for Operation Downfall are finished. The 1/72 Boeing Silvertown ACI has already started to look like the Chinese KJ-1 AEW as the Rolls-Royce Dart engines have been glued on and the side windows replaced. Parts from the Heller Grumman E-2C Hawkeye have also been applied. Meanwhile the Shorts Windermere has got the two Allison 501 turboprop engines installed on one of the wings. Milliput filler has been applied to fill in the gaps
One of the C-130 twin-engine builds is undergoing a conversion to an earlier concept with Rolls-Royce Griffon engines.
Still got the 3D Wizarding World Hogwarts Castle to build, built the same one before but due to the heating in my flat certain areas need repairs so the second one will be stronger with a few extensions.
 The Hornby Playtrains Hogwarts Express train set and separate locomotive is set for release in the autumn. I think that it will be released in time for the HBO TV series based on the Harry Potter books. I'm hopping that there's a TT:120 scale version of the Hogwarts Express as this would be a closer scale to the 3D printed puzzle of the Castle and Astronomy tower.

[McColm]

Sunday 5th July 2026

I now know the way to upload pictures from my photos onto this forum, which means that I will be spending a lot of time taking photos and amending all those topics that had flikr or Imgur links.
I also had an update from my mom who lives down in Tregenver House Falmouth Cornwall that she is selling her bungalow and is looking for a ground floor flat in the same area as my sister Jill is downsizing due to her health problems. Her husband has had to give up his work in the microbrewery as the I.T. Guy to look after her.
Mum is finding it harder to get down the stairs in her bungalow, she has suggested that Jill buys it and converts the garage into a studio which she could rent out as the University is close by. They both used to live in the same street when they first moved to Falmouth just at different ends. The option is still on the table if they can't find anything suitable.
The photo is of Tregenver House built in the 1300 hundreds and expanded over the years.

[kerick]

Sunday 5th July 2026

I now know the way to upload pictures from my photos onto this forum, which means that I will be spending a lot of time taking photos and amending all those topics that had flikr or Imgur links.
I also had an update from my mom who lives down in Tregenver House Falmouth Cornwall that she is selling her bungalow and is looking for a ground floor flat in the same area as my sister Jill is downsizing due to her health problems. Her husband has had to give up his work in the microbrewery as the I.T. Guy to look after her.
Mum is finding it harder to get down the stairs in her bungalow, she has suggested that Jill buys it and converts the garage into a studio which she could rent out as the University is close by. They both used to live in the same street when they first moved to Falmouth just at different ends. The option is still on the table if they can't find anything suitable.

[McColm]

Sunday 5th July 2026

I now know the way to upload pictures from my photos onto this forum, which means that I will be spending a lot of time taking photos and amending all those topics that had flikr or Imgur links.
I also had an update from my mom who lives down in Tregenver House Falmouth Cornwall that she is selling her bungalow and is looking for a ground floor flat in the same area as my sister Jill is downsizing due to her health problems. Her husband has had to give up his work in the microbrewery as the I.T. Guy to look after her.
Mum is finding it harder to get down the stairs in her bungalow, she has suggested that Jill buys it and converts the garage into a studio which she could rent out as the University is close by. They both used to live in the same street when they first moved to Falmouth just at different ends. The option is still on the table if they can't find anything suitable.

It's the set of steps that leads down from Mum's front door down to the road that's the problem for her, although when mum first moved in getting home insurance was very hard to find as the river Tamer is 600 yards away on the other side of the road. The river would have to be forty feet high to reach her front door to cause any flooding meaning the houses on the other side of the road would be submerged first.

[McColm]

Friday 10th July 2026

Well I think that it for now just the model railway items to photo and upload. Due to financial circumstances I best not buy anything to increase the stash as I have plenty of unfinished builds to get through and I will be adding them individually to the relevant topic.