Sorry about the no-show tonight, not like me to miss a Tuesday flying...
However, time is short this week and I had a last minute project that needed completing before Thursday.
My bro is a member of the Royal British Legion in his home town in Essex and has organised a Forces Day there this weekend. He has vehicles and all sorts turning up and also wanted to feature the local wartime airfields, particularly Rivenhall. This is because they were busy around D Day with B26 Marauders, P51s and other types and then were used for glider operations 1944/45 by the RAF after the Americans had moved onto the Continent.
I volunteered to build a B26 for him. Short notice ie. a week, and I will be driving it down to him so I need it to be finished and solid as much as it can be. One of the quickest builds I have done. I built the old Airfix 1/72 scale version which by chance comes with the markings for a Rivenhall B26. It took a day or so to locate a usable one on ebay that I could get quickly however one arrived and I started building on Saturday. For an old kit it is surprisingly detailed and went together very well. The cylindrical fuselage top join took some sanding to get it looking good and the rear of the engine nacelles needed some filler to get the curves right but on the whole I enjoyed it. It isn't very often I build a natural metal finished aircraft as it used to be difficult to recreate the metal finish. However, Tamiya make a bare metal finish paint and it did the job nicely. Perhaps I would have spent a bit more time tidying up joints etc. but time was the limiter here, just a few touch ups and corrections to be done tomorrow.
D Day stripes were done by painting a white area, masking it, painting the bare metal finish and then using a sheet of black decal from which the stripes were cut. Easier than painting I think.
The idea is that the model will stay with my bro and will be used for exhibitions.....
I think he wants a MkIV Stirling and a Horsa glider next.....
Cheerzen