The South Bank, London

After a few hours in the Tower of London i made my way to my next destination Tate Modern, my little journey crossing over Tower Bridge and walking along the south bank of the Thames.



The Shard, Tallest completed building in Europe, and is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom.

HMS Belfast, Museum ship which was one of the most powerful Royal Navy ships of World War 2.

Yeah can't remember what this was called.



City of London Hall, Where good old Mayor Borris resides.



Borough Market, K-on! girls bought cakes here. I myself had egg custard tart, giant cookie, 2 cups of fresh juice (mango and orange then melon), an oyster, some sort of grilled meat, some sushi and then a little cheese. I havent eaten so much in years, wanted to bring home a ostrich egg.



Southwalk Catherdral, place of worship for around 1000 years.



The Golden Hind, Replica of the Francis Drake's Golden Hind docked in St Mary's Dock




Last before the Tate Shakespear's Globe, Originally built 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, then demolished in 1644 and then reconstructed in 1997.



Ian

Revell 1/144 - Dassault / Dornier Alpha Jet - WiP 2 - Assembled

Basically all the meat is now done, got to fit and mask off the canopy and at the very last i will glue the canards on the new resin tail, otherwise i will only accidentally knock them off.

New resin tail fitted from Retrowings to correct the warped end of the fuselage which gave the kit the strange "banana effect". With the Retrowings kit you can choose to replace the entire tail canard as well but i choose to keep the original plastic one which has the same shape as the British style alpha jets.

Was quite easy to fit, simply cut off the end off the tail along a panel line and then this new part fitted inside the hole left and just had to be glued and putty added to fix as discrepancies, very easy and convinced me to start buying new releases from Retrowings.



Think this is one of revells first attempts at a good 1/144 kit before the F-14 came along and imagine that when this was released over ten years ago and was quite the quality 1/144 kit. All went together nicely and has all the panel lines and parts structure which ive come to expect from the modern 1/144 revell kit.

Ian

[Kit Review] - FE Resin 1/144 - Grumman F9F-8T Cougar -

I bought this as a companion to the OzMods F9F Panther, the Cougar being a updated more modern swept wing version against the Panthers straight wings also got the 2-seater trainer for more variation. Wonder of this one of the Navy/Marines first ghost grey birds replacing the old dark blue?

Same as the other FE Resin kits ive bought before, all the main panel lines present i can tell.

Very nice resin casting hardly any bubbles present and lots of space to add cockpit detail, with the amount of parts present looks like it should be a easy build. I really doubt the skinny resin landing gear will be able to take the wight of all that resin and with the 2 vac-foam canopy's provided might have one of them open.

Used YKraft decals before, quite delicate, hope i can get those shark teeth applied straight off.



Got to give these parts a bath in warm water with a small drop of washing up liquid, this is to remove any mold releasing agent left over from casting the resin which could ruin the paint app, read that you should also do this with injection kits to.
Ian

Tower of London

Payed a visit to "Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress" or the Tower of London for short yesterday, can't remember visiting it properly since i was a wee lad but had a great few hour in the place.
The Crown Jewels are stored here too which are incredible! Over 45 tonnes worth of old and who know how many jewel.

The white tower above, the first original castle built by William the Conqueror in 1078, not personally.

Yeoman or better know as a "beef-eater" Simon giving a guided tour, very entertaining fellow.



Grenadier Guard



The second wall i think with Longhorn tower.



 If the Raven's ever leave the tower, legend has it the Kingdom will fall. They ain't shy.



Trebuchet in the old moat



Various cannon and plenty of arms in the tower and grounds.



No idea what theses parts are called but very medieval.



Royal crown and flag on the top for all to see in the old days.



From the south bank.



Ian

Model kit Medieval Armor style

Visited the Tower of London today and in the armoury, some of the knight's suits of armor are displayed like the model kit sprues.
Genius way to display.
Ian

[Kit Review] - OzMods 1/144 - Grumman F9F Panther -

First kit from OzMods which ive been eyeing for sometime, never built a Ozmods kit before but looking forward to having ago at building this little beauty. Really find the Panther a real eye pleasing jet.

Was quite surprised by the packaging, since this kit comes with vac-foam canopy it would need more protection but arrived all the way from Australia perfectly intact.

All the sprues are quite detailed and seem to be blueprint perfect, not sure it you can see in the photo but has the best seat ive ever seen on a non ejection seat plane, really looks slick. When it comes to vac-foam canopy 2 is always a plus and nicely done white decals.

Since this a small run injection kit by a small company providing a fantastic kit which most of the large manufacturer would never release i can easily write off the flash on the sprues, knife and sandpaper will easily get rid of that.



Think you can model this as one of the jets from "The Bridges at Toko-Ri"
Ian

F-toys 1/144 - Macross VF-1J Valkyrie - "Dark Bird" -

1/144 scale Macross VF-1J Valkyrie "Dark Bird" a low-viz space fighter which only had 5 seconds airtime in episode 5 of SDF Macross, when i started this Valkyrie it was called the "Dark Bird" but now yamato have released a 1/60 perfect transformation version the squadron has been given the rather nifty name "The Cavaliers"

Another of the F-toys 1/144 Macross Valkyries that really should have been finished quite some time ago but have never got round to finishing but alas done.

As far as i could tell the "Dark Bird is all royal blue with the front, back and circle on the leg a lighter greyer blue with the red stripe on on wing and a yellow panel at the top of the tail.



Thin k the VF-1 looks best when the wings are in this position in fighter mode, of course the best way a valk look is gerwalk.



Painted the gunpod same colour as the front/back of the legs.



Take off!



Did have a Alaska base VF-1A in the works but ruined the white doing the panel wash with a gloss coat, oops.
Ian

Academy 1/144 - Su-25 Frogfoot - WiP 2 - New cockpit painted

New office all painted and ready for the fuselage pieces to be glued together, think it captured what a Su-25 cockpit should looks like. Also cut out one of the panel which can just be seen between the tow pieces which im going to have open showing a little detail inside.

Used a leftover ejection seat backing from the new eduard MiG-21 which is almost the same seat for the Frogfoot. Added all the new detail copying some aftermarket resin kit in various scales.



Got to look into what kind of payload to add next.
Ian

Academy 1/144 - Su-25 Frogfoot - WiP 1 -

Started the Academy Su-25 last weekend, started by building a new cockpit and positioning some of the flaps down.

Going to paint the cockpit then join the 2 pieces of the fuselage together.

All going very smooth.
Ian

Real Grade 1/144 - MS-05 Zaku I - WiP 9 - Decaled

Been adding the decals to my nearly finished Zaku I over the last week but really modelling has been one hold due to the Olympics. Just can't get enough of watching it all happening in London and just watched Bolt confirm himself as a legend keeping the 200m gold, guy is a legend!

Using the MS-06 as the base for MS-05 decal scheme which i simplified so that when displayed next to other RG Zakus they look like there from the same family or company manufacturing colony, Zeonic.

All parts just taken apart so i can give them all a last matt finish before the finish.
Ian

London 2012 Olympics

"Faster, Higher, Stronger"

Had the a great day at the Olympic Park last on Wednesday, only managed to get tickets to some group stage womens basketball. The rings are outside the Basketball arena, all arena ahve them outside.

Last photo i took before leaving the Olympic Park, best weather with the sun setting behind the Olympic Park and massive Orbit.



Standing for the national anthems of Great Britain and Russian Federation before the start of the second womens basketball games. Doubt i will ever feel the great vibe of 80% of the crowd singing "God save the Queen" So proud.
 


Art in the park



Basketball arena.



Worlds largest McDonald's, most prominent cooperate sponsor. Had a Mcflurry, best thing from there i think.



Park Live, big screens one either side of the structure in the river, both sides packed with spectators watch events.




Royal barge that carried the olympic flame.



Flags of the nations taking part in the womens basketball.



Sun setting behind the Orbit and stadium.



There i am right at the back, the very back, arms up.



Half time show.



Arriving at Paddington Station, crowds already starting.




Ian

[Kit Review] - Academy 1/144 - Su-25 Frogfoot -

Kit which ive had I'm stash for over a year and reckon its about time it was built. Think this is the only Su-25 available in the scale and luckly its a fairly decent kit.

Been doing some research on her and there is a lot of choice when it comes to paint schemes, like alot of the soviet era jet they where sold to alot of country's with so many different marking to choose from. Probably go with the red star

Fairly fine sprues with nice amount of detail, all the main panel lines are present with a few needed to be added and most of the shape looks correct.

Decals are simple like all soviet jets, go quite a few red star decals in my stash so should be able to pick a scheme i like.

 

Most of the detail present, a new panel line along the wing needs to be added i think and maybe replace the air-brakes at the end which are not quite the right shape.



All looks correct with the panel lines except some small access panels which are missing.



Paint schemes for the same bird as the box art, haven't found a scheme that ive wanted to model yet but notice that nearly all these Frogfoot's have camouflage patterns, must be because there ground attack jets.



Except for a whole new cockpit can't see this being difficult to build.
Ian